Two weeks ago I had a cataract removed from my left eye. Wow! I can see the numbers on our car’s speedometer again.

I never realized how one little cataract—one little blind spot in my eye—was affecting my vision until it was removed. For the first time in about 29 years, I don’t need to wear glasses for reading and working on the computer. One little blind spot. All of us have blind spots in our minds and spirits that prevent us from seeing the truth even when the truth camps in front of us. But back to confused blessings.

While restored sight is a tremendous blessing—it also creates confusion. At least for me. I sit down at the computer and reach for my glasses. I can’t find them. I can’t find them because I removed them after realizing that every time I reached for them and put them on—I couldn’t see anything. So to remove wasted time and effort, I removed the glasses. Confused blessing.

Five years ago my husband Alan retired and we moved from the wild, lovely Black Isle in the Scottish Highlands to the seafront town of Dunoon. We didn’t want to move. We could walk from our house down to the point and take pictures of dolphins leaping out of the water. We could drive a short distance and walk through a truly enchanted forest. I’ve used it in several of my books. We had lovely friends and a marvelous Monday Night Bible study with praise and worship, prayer, inspirational testimonies, and enjoyable fellowship. We didn’t want to leave. However, my husband was the minister of three churches, which were in the process of combining, and an uproar that wasn’t his fault waved him right out the doors and sent us to Dunoon. It didn’t seem like a blessing at the time—but we realize more of what a blessing it is every day. We now have a lovely church family, I have written dozens of books, and the doctors here actually investigated my husband’s health and found the cancer in his kidney, and in his blood—cancer that was stealing his life. It had been overlooked in the Black Isle. Confused blessings.

Fourteen years ago, I left my Texas home in the unique Texas Hill Country with tears streaming down my face. I stood beside the open door of my loaded pickup truck praying and waiting for God to send a miracle so I could stay. But He didn’t. I didn’t want to leave. Oh, I so didn’t want to leave. But since my newspaper job had moved along without me, I was out of a job and I had been unable to find another one. It was the first time in my life that I had ever been jobless. However, leaving Bandera, relocating in Alabama, and eventually marrying Alan and moving to Scotland—all of these things hold their own blessings. I left Bandera with one book accepted by a publishing company, but not yet published. Now I have 42 books published. Confused blessings.

God’s word promises in Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good to those who love the Lord. It’s my favorite verse in the Bible, so I shouldn’t be surprised that confused blessings are often the sweetest.

We all have holes—if not in our physical eyes—in our minds and spirits.

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