My World Is Ever So Small

   We have had a plethora of rain lately. Over the past few days, storm clouds have gathered in the afternoon, and rain has been our weather.

   As I stood on the back porch and watched the clouds gather, I thought about how others would cope with this new storm. It seemed to me that those clouds I saw encompassed the whole world, that the entire planet was turning darker, and that others were seeing the same scene I did. It is easy to project everyone else into the scenario of my own life and existence and make the assumption that it is the same for all others.

   But I know that it is not so. Even as I took a look at the weather radar, with those black clouds billowing outside, I could determine that those folks just a few miles south of where I stood were in the clear. They were not seeing the same things that I was, and their experience was completely different.

   How much the same plays out in my life. I am in my own little world, and there I stay, insulated from the world of people around me by what i can see and feel. My thought processes and vision need to be expanded.

   It can be so easy for me to just hunker down in the storm cellar of my life and forget others, but, even as I take another look at the photograph above, I see that there is more just to the west, a different sky with light, and there are people living out there.

   The whole thing is not about me. The world is so much bigger than that.

   God, please help me to see and hear and care.