Barrett

RobAnne and I have an eighteen-year-old daughter. Her name is Barrett. She’s a wonderful student and a wonderful daughter. This last weekend she was in the school musical, Once Upon a Mattress. It’s the story of “The Princess and the Pea,” a marvelous fairytale.

Barrett was one of the musicians in the chorus. She has many talents, but singing and dancing are not on the top of her list. Yet, she loves being part of a theatrical production. What amazed me was that when Barrett was on stage as part of the chorus, she was all I watched. I didn’t watch the leads; I didn’t see the set; I only saw her. I watched her every move – how she moved across the stage, how she interacted with her fellow actors.

It reminded me of the time when our son, R.W., who is now twenty-two, was in preschool and we bought our very first video camera. I filmed the Christmas play, and when I got home, we had to laugh because the only thing I had filmed was him. It was like nothing else was going on; my focus was on him.

It made me think about how much God loves me, and how much he’s interested in the details of my life. While I know that God is concerned about all the issues facing our planet – He didn’t die just for me, but for all of mankind –every once in a while it’s nice to know that God’s focus is on me. With all the other activities going on, all the drama of life, all the performances around us, God’s eye is on me.

This focus is not a harshly critical one, as many of us imagine. I remember singing in Sunday school, "Be careful, little eyes, what you see / be careful, little eyes, what you see / for the Father up above is looking down in love.” It was almost like God was just waiting for us to make a mistake with our eyes and our activities. I think that’s why we have a Savior to rescue us from sin. But God’s loving concern is focused on us – on me – and that makes my problems seem very small.

God’s focus on every detail of my life is a marvelous thing to think about. It’s my prayer that AMF would be full of people who help other people understand that God has His loving attention – his focus – on each one of us

http://www.americanmissionary.org/