Everytime that I pull out from my side road onto the main highway, I think of Abraham Zapruder. Abraham Zapruder, if you don’t know, was a resident of Dallas, Texas who went downtown on November 22, 1963 to watch the President’s motorcade come through town. He was standing in the grass beside the road in Dealy Plaza, filming with his 8mm movie camera, and inadvertently filmed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. When you see a picture of the Kennedy assassination, you’re probably seeing a frame from the Zapruder film.
But there is a moment in the filming when a large highway sign comes between the camera and the president’s car. Historians and conspiracy theorists have speculated for years about what exactly was happening while the president was hidden by the sign, but it remains forever hidden.
Whenever I pull out from my side road onto the main highway, there is a large highway sign that partially blocks my view of oncoming traffic, and so I think of Abraham Zapruder. And that reminds me that there are always things in life that are not seen. Usually, the things which are not seen are more important than the things which are seen, but that is hard for us to keep in perspective.
The easiest thing for us to see is the small picture – how things immediately affect us. Often things which we think are bad will turn out to be good in the long run. Also, our understanding is often limited – we don’t see the good (or the evil) that may be hidden in someone else; we don’t see the burdens someone else may be carrying; we don’t see the motives behind others actions. We should always seek to see things the way God sees them, as much as is possible.
We cannot see the future. We can see patterns and principles and try to make predictions, but only God holds the future.
The most important things in life are spiritual. We are not a body that happens to have a spirit in it. Humans are all eternal souls that have a temporary body. Our battles are not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces. This is extremely hard for us to remember.
As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said in The Little Prince, “What is essential is invisible to the eye.”