Struck by the incongruity of a farm tractor leading the local Shad Derby parade, I framed my digital shot.  The red tractor with its great wheels being the first vehicle in the parade would make Norman Rockwell – if he were alive – inspired.  And, in a sense, the tractor at the head symbolized the essence of the farm community my town is and the tradition it celebrates faithfully every year.

And, so I carefully aim my digital camera, point and shoot, and then the next parade act – men in Scottish kilts playing bagpipes – catches my eye.

The Windsor High School Band, the Girl Scouts, the Little Leaguers all march by, and I’m waiting for the giant “shad on a float” to cast its shadow as it goes by.

Then, a soft voice next to me mumbles, “I never knew Connecticut had a state fish!  When that fish went by, it was the first I heard of it.”

I’m really surprised I hadn’t seen it.  The fish float–such as it is– was being pulled by the red tractor at the beginning of the parade!  And I was so focused on the tractor and its status in a parade, and taking a picture of the tractor, that I completely missed the shad!  The shad is the headline – the big idea – of the day-long celebration.  It’s about the fish, not about farming or tractors.  There is a month of fishing contests preceding this festival.  I know this, and still… didn’t see the fish go by.

Writers… and preachers love analogies.  How does some unremarkable experience here relate to a profound truth?  That’s a question I love to delve into.  Guilty.

So, here’s the parallel.

What I focus on – what captures my attention – may cause me to miss the headliner.  

99% of the people who watched the Shad Derby parade last Saturday probably saw the Shad float go by, just like last year.  Then there’s the one percent, like me, who only saw the tractor.  Or missed both tractor and shad float.

This happened in scripture.  The Jewish people who saw the messiah come into Jerusalem on a donkey were very focused on their messiah – the person who would emancipate them from Roman rule.  They saw their messiah…they missed Jesus, the Son of God, who would free them from chains of sin and death.

This happens in my spiritual life.  I become focused on what I want God to do for me, immortalize it, and as I wait for it and wait for it, I miss what God is working in my life right now.  Through these very circumstances that I’m in.  Not the dreams of the future.  Or even the preoccupying present moment I’m in. He is trying to get me to read the headline, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3:19)

How often does God pass by, and we don’t even see, hear, or feel Him– because of our preoccupation with our life and our dreams?  I am guilty.  Are you?