Have you ever run from something only to find out later that that was the place you were supposed to be? Have you ever looked and looked for something only to discover that it was right under your nose? “If it had been a snake, it would have bit you,” Mom would say. Stop for a moment and think, is there something sitting in plain view that you failed to see? A diamond in the rough will look like an ordinary stone, but polished and cut it becomes a valuable and precious gem.
Sometimes there are people near us who have, or are, the answer to our problems, but because the grass looks greener on the other side, we often fail to see the obvious. Let’s not wait until the snake bites us to realize what we have available to us. Let’s not allow our complaints, our shortcomings, and our problems to blind us to the amazing treasure within us and those around us. Even little children can teach us if we are willing to listen to them. What treasure is hiding from you, or in you, just waiting to be seen and used?
The problem may not be with the snake that would have bitten you, that you didn’t see, it may be with the one you saw that bit you and didn’t realize it was a snake. As we discipline ourselves for success, we may discover like the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion in the Wizard of Oz, that what we have been searching for may already be within us. Like Dorothy, we may discover that Kansas is not as far away as we thought.
What’s that? Are those clicking heels that I hear?