September 22

When Listening Improves Our Vision

Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it (Genesis 4:7).

Scripture: Genesis 4:3-12

Song: “Search Me O God”

My friend Don was ready to leave for work when his wife asked, “You’re not going to wear that are you?”

Puzzled, Don replied, “I certainly am. Why? What’s wrong with what I have on?”

“You have on a black shirt with blue pants,” his wife keenly observed.

“No, these are black pants,” Don insisted.

A couple of weeks passed and Don began to experience a problem with his vision. After consulting an optician, Don learned that he had cataracts in both eyes. This condition often hinders one’s ability to make accurate color distinctions. It appears that Don was wearing blue pants after all.

God warned Cain that sin was crouching at the door, like a crafty tiger hunkered down in the tall grass waiting for the unsuspecting gazelle. But like my friend Don, Cain couldn’t see it. Like Cain, we need a word from God to point out the sin we can’t see. Perhaps if we listen better we shall better see the sin that crouches, waiting for us.

Heavenly Father, speak to me through Your Word, and may I both hear and see how to respond. Through Christ, amen.