Are you missing the obvious?

The Costco in southern Phoenix has an odd gas station and exit system. If a person wants to purchase gas, one has to drive to the far side of the warehouse and after fueling up, the driver gets funneled through a small parking lot to either the road leading behind Costco’s loading dock, or to a road leading to a neighboring business.

I decided to buy gas first, because I didn’t want the balmy 80-degree weather to cook my groceries in a hot car. And, because I needed exercise, I chose to park in the small lot between the gas station and the loading dock exit. As a result, I drove through the loading dock area for the first time, and a sign painted on the wall across from the docks caught my eye.

At first glance, it didn’t make much sense—but by the time I had exited onto the main road, I had started to laugh and actually turned into the front side of Costco all over again, drove through the busy parking lot and around the building again just so I could snap a photo.

My mind raced through possible scenarios and headlines as I slowed and took photos. What had prompted Costco to paint the sign in the first place? Had a hapless forklift operator ended up in a city hundreds of miles away? Or even worse, had an operator AND his forklift thumped to the ground from the back of a truck as an eager trucker peeled out of the loading dock? Who would drive away with the back doors open, anyway?

It would seem obvious that one should check for things like forklift operators, closed doors and safety before pulling out.

And then I thought of the obvious things that we miss in our hurry and bustle. We get so caught up in the drama of our lives that we fail to stop and consider the obvious—or worse yet we take some ‘expert’s’ word for it. We accept the subtle lies of science that insist the world has been around for millions of years and that we evolved from nothing (last time I checked, if I leave my computer on and paper in the printer, a novel won’t evolve—not matter how long I wait).

Sure, it might be hard to wrap our minds around the idea of a Creator who not only creates, but continues to care for us and has a plan for our lives (but believing that we rose out of a puddle of primordial goo takes its own brand of leaping in faith).

“The heavens declare the glory of God,
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into
all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.” Psalm 19:1-4

Do you listen? Have you heard? As winter fades and spring burgeons in beauty and change all around us, take a moment to consider the miracles that cry out, “Look at me! Each cell and genome and sequence programmed by a Creator as a sign of His existence.” Don’t miss the obvious. Jesus told his listeners to “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.” (Luke 12:27)

Today I challenge you to consider creation and the one who created it. Missing the Obvious Click To Tweet

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