Heaven is within each of us.  It is not some far away place. It’s all around us and until we realize this, we will not be able to experience the love, joy, peace, and harmony of heaven.

Sermon on the Mount

Emmet Fox tells us in his book, Sermon on the Mount, about the story of the Rich Young Man. He states that it is one of the saddest stories written because the young man missed out on the greatest opportunity in history.  Then the story talks about the young man having great possessions. The story goes deeper than material possessions. It’s about possessions being preconceived judgments and ideas.  This story is tragic not because the young man had wealth. But because his heart was imprisoned by the love of money and his beliefs about money and material possessions. 

Are You Blind?

Emmet Fox compares us with a color blind man who lives in a world of beautiful colors in the flowers, the sky, and the colors in nature.  All he sees are shades of black, gray, and white. The color blind man does not see the clouds in the blue sky. Nor does he see the life giving green shades of the trees. He does not see the bright red of the male Cardinal as it tries to attract a mate.  Alas, this poor man cannot see the breathtaking colors of red, pink, yellow, and orange of a sunset or sunrise.  If he were also without the sense of smell, then the garden would have no meaning for him and it is forever hidden from him. 

Bringing the Point Home

This passage had profound new meaning for me as I recently walked through a garden nursery filled with a large variety of flowers. The colors were red, yellow, blue, purple, just about any color you wanted to see.  There was a large selection of trees and bushes all around in varying shades of green.  The sweet aromas from the flowering plants were all around me. Aromas lingering in the air as I was immersed in the beauty of this living creation of nature.  

As I walked through the flowers and trees, I saw a blind man standing in the center of the plants.  He was wearing his sunglasses to hide his eyes and had his red striped cane in his hands.  He tapped along the pathways until he found a place to sit down as he waited for his companion to finish shopping.  I wondered if he was able to smell the sweet aromas of the fragrant plants surrounding him.  Or was the garden totally hidden from him?

Are We Blind?

It occurred to me that we to, are like the blind man.  While we have our vision, we do not really see all the beauty that is around us.  We can’t see the ‘trees for the forest’ so to speak.  We have become blinded to our surrounding and we do not see God Our Father who is standing right in front of us.  We have become so caught up in life, that we are not living life.

Have We Missed the Blessings?

Are we not seeing the blessings that have been placed along our path as we walk it.  Do we feel the sensations of the textures with our fingertips of the plants encircling us? Do you feel the smoothness of the rose petals?  The roughness of the peeling bark on a Weeping Willow?  Do we feel the emotions of love, grace, peace, hope, and joy that life offers us?  Or, are we blindly, emotionlessly, senselessly going through life, not experiencing life at all? 

Are We an Automaton?

Are we like an automaton, just moving through life?  How sad it is for the blind man in the garden center, surrounded by all the beauty of the colors that the plants had to offer.  But, it is also sadly tragic for those of us who just exist, blindly and senselessly going through life not experiencing the blessings surrounding us.  We have closed ourselves off to the majesty of life itself.  We have essentially become both the blind man and the rich young man at the same time.  I think this story is more heartbreaking than the story of the Rich Young Man.  The sad reality is, that we did it to ourselves.

Did We Blind Ourselves?

We blinded ourselves and we placed importance on the activities in life that are in truth, nothing more than busy work.  We have not only missed out on the garden, but we have missed out on the true meaning of life.  We have missed out on the Love of Our Father who created us.