The other week I hopped onto Facebook, and as I was scrolling through, I saw a post of someone I know with a picture attached. I’m not sure about you but pictures tend to catch my attention before captions.

As I looked at the picture the first thing, I noticed was a Christmas cactus sitting in a windowsill. I thought to myself, ‘what a cute little cactus’. It looked to be about the same size as the one I have in my home with all my plants.

I then looked at the rest of the picture and behind the cactus sitting in the windowsill was a landscape covered in snow. That’s when I read the caption of the post that talked about how much snow they had just gotten. Hmmm. This post wasn’t about the cute little cactus but about the amount of snow that had just covered their town.

As I chuckled to myself because I was so focused on the plant that I didn’t even realize the huge snowstorm in the ‘background’, I realized that my focus was not on what was intended. I have plants in the house and in the backyard and so I was naturally drawn to the plant over the snowstorm. As that realization hit me, I began to think about how this idea of what we focus on can affect all areas of our lives.

Then the story of Jesus walking on the water popped into my head. There is a bad storm, the disciples are fearful, and when they first see the figure on the water, they call it a ghost before realizing it was Jesus. Then Peter wants to walk out on the water with Jesus, and he does, until his focus moved from Jesus to the surrounding storm.

Then Peter got out of the boat and was walking on the water toward Jesus. 30 But when Peter saw the strong wind, he became frightened. As he began to sink, he shouted, “Lord, rescue me!”
Matthew 14:29b-30

Peter was doing fine while his faith and his focus was on Jesus, but once life’s distractions got in the way he began to sink. It’s not always easy to keep our eyes and our focus on God all the time. There are so many different things that can distract us from it. Sometimes we are staring at a Christmas cactus when someone is trying to draw our attention to a huge snowstorm. Or sometimes we look at all the things the world has to offer, and we lose sight of the One who made all of this life possible. It happens. But Just like Peter we need to shake off our distractions and realize the true focus should be on the Son of God (Matt. 14:33).

As we continue to journey through the wilderness in this season of Lent, I encourage all of us to make that extra effort to focus more on God so that we can more clearly see the picture and the path God desires for all of us.

21 Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:21

Blessings,

Pastor Brian