BLINDERS

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Matthew 5:7

            I encounter a lot of Amish buggies when I drive out of town, and their horses always wear what are called “blinders”. These are like leather sunglasses that fasten onto the horse’s head, just to the outside of the animal’s eyes. The purpose of blinders is to block the horse’s peripheral vision, so that cars and other objects that are moving alongside of them won’t startle them as they pull their buggy. It gives the horse vision of only what is straight ahead.

         I have met people who wear blinders, too. They can see only straight ahead. Their own path is all that they care about. If you need their help, want to walk alongside them, or if they consider you somehow beneath them, you are left out of their elite group.

         Mephibosheth—Saul’s grandson and son of Jonathan, friend of David—was crippled and in hiding, for fear that David would hunt him down to kill him. David did hunt him down, but it was to bless him, being the only remaining family member of King Saul. David invited him to spend his remaining days in the palace and eat with him (II Samuel 9:1-13).

         As powerful and as important as David became, he still never lost sight of who he was and how he got there. Everyone was important to him, and he went to great lengths to show mercy to those whom he really did not have to care about, except in the merciful Spirit of his God. That is why God also showed mercy to David during his reign and promised that it would last forever. Praise the Lord for always being concerned about even a sparrow (Matthew 10:29-31), and that no one is ever out of His sight.

Davy L. Troxel