The Net

You’ve heard the expression- “can’t see the forest for the trees.”  But, have you heard the (maybe never before coined) phrase, “can’t see the net for the tree?”

I didn’t think so.  Let me explain…

This morning as I drove onto the school campus, my very sleep 14 year old- didn’t say anything, but just pointed.  I looked and saw a tree; a wintery-dead, sad looking tree.  I said, “okay.”  I actually was trying to figure out through my morning fog why he was pointing at a tree.  As we sat waiting our turn to move forward into carpool, he pointed again.  I responded, “I see it…a dead tree...”  Even though he was still half asleep, he finally realized I wasn’t getting it, so he opened his mouth-which is quite a feat for him that early.  He said, “No, mom.  You’re not getting it.  Not the tree.  Look at the net.” 

The net...big- at least 15 feet high and just as wide, black-dark enough to stand out, and close-right behind the tree…had eluded my notice.  My son's interest in the net was that it sits right on the edge of a practice field.  It was put up to keep soccer balls from getting kicked into traffic.  My interest in the net was…well, I obviously didn’t have an interest in it at first since I never even noticed it.  My interest in the net came later today.

The phrase we’ve all heard- “can’t see the forest for the trees”- refers to being too close to a problem to see the solution.    My new (made-up) phrase- “can’t see the net for the tree” has meaning too…at least to me.  The meaning really dawned on me as I thought about why I didn’t see the net in the first place. 

When I looked in the direction of a 14 year-old's finger-point this morning, all I saw was what was right in front of me- the sad and dead thing.  I didn’t look beyond it.  I wondered with the Lord later if this is how some of us- me included- look at our lives.  We see very plainly what is right in front of us, but we never take a minute to refocus and look beyond that.  We can’t see the ‘net’ – the better thing- because we’re too busy focusing on the ‘dead’ thing. 

It’s easy for all of us to focus on the things that are right in front of us. We’re busy, we’re tired most of the time…we’re living in survival mode.  I wonder if we took some time to look just a little beyond that ‘dead’ thing in our lives, if we would see the big net that God has for us.  The thing about the net I saw this morning is that it was literally just steps away from the tree.  I think it’s this way with God’s “nets” too.  They are just steps away from our dead thing. 

God’s nets for us- just like the net by the roadway- are for our safety and peace of mind.  They are His way of saying, “I’ve got this.”  Do we not notice them? 

There is a big dead tree of some kind in all of our lives- something we just can’t seem to take our eyes off.  I bet if you look just a little beyond your tree, you’ll see a net - God’s net for you. 

Praying today – for all of us- that our gaze will change, and that we’ll see the net instead of the tree.  Maybe then we can change our made-up phrase to be, “can’t see the tree…God’s net is too big!”