On a grey Friday morning in January 2007, during the peak of the commuter rush, an unassuming young man entered the L’Enfant Plaza train station in Washington D.C.
    
As the crowds rushed by, the young man positioned himself against a wall, beside a trash can and out of the way of foot traffic. He opened the violin case he carried and to "prime the pump" he threw a few coins and dollar bills into the case. He then proceeded to begin playing.
    
But this was no ordinary street musician. The anonymous violinist in the train station dressed in jeans, a long sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap was renowned virtuoso, Joshua Bell, one of the finest classical musicians in the world. Only three days earlier audiences had shelled out between $100.00 and $200.00 for a ticket to watch him play at Boston’s Symphony Hall. Two weeks later, at the Music Center at Strathmore, in North Bethesda, Bell would play to a standing-room-only audience. But on this morning, he played his heart out on a 1713 violin hand crafted by Antonio Stradivarius, as he stood just a few feet from clueless commuters hurrying to work.
    
Bell began his performance with Chaconne, from Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D Minor, considered to be one of the most difficult violin solos ever written. Bell calls this a “spiritually powerful piece, emotionally powerful, structurally perfect.”
    
Can you guess what happened?
    
Did these busy commuters suddenly stop in their tracks, mesmerized by the master violinist and drift towards the magical melody?
    
Not so much. For the first three minutes of Bell’s concert no one passing even acknowledged him. Not the music. Not the priceless musical instrument. Not the musician. Nothing. Everyone hurried by, head down, fixated on their own destination.
    
At four minutes one woman hurriedly tossed a dollar into Bell’s open violin case. Finally, after six minutes, one commuter stopped, leaned against a wall and listened to the gift that was being poured out into that train station air.
    
For 43 minutes Bell played…making a grand total of $32.17 off of 27 donations. Only two people stopped to listen. The other 1,095 people who passed in front of him simply hurried by, oblivious; obsessed by the importance and demands of their own schedules.
    
John Lake, author of Timeless Beauty: In The Arts and Everyday Life summed up what this missed moment revealed about all those busy commuters as well as us:
    
“If we can’t take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that, then what else are we missing?”
    
It’s all too easy to be wrapped up in the details and demands of life that we fail to recognize that which is right in front of us. Either something so distracts us or we have become so wrapped up in ourselves that we cannot recognize that which holds such great value when it is stands right before us. At that point it is easy to miss the something or someone of such value when they do cross our path.
    
There were many at Bethlehem who missed the love that God sent that first Christmas. Perhaps they were blinded, perhaps they were too busy or perhaps they just couldn’t see. After all, a baby in a manager wasn’t what they were expecting. He wasn’t the King, the Messiah, the Ruler or the Conqueror they anticipated so they missed the Savior when He came.
    
What are you looking for this Christmas? Things, relationships, direction, meaning, purpose in your life? Make sure that you are looking in the right place. Don’t become so distracted that you miss out on the obvious. Learn a lesson from those who long ago missed the Savior or those who more recently missed the violin virtuoso, simply because it wasn’t what they expected.
    
This Christmas, don’t miss the obvious. The babe in a manger was God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. Unconditional love and genuine forgiveness is found only through Him.

Have a Blessed Christmas,

Greg Morris

Gregory K. Morris, Ph.D. is the founder and president of Leadership Dynamics a non-profit corporation committed to the development of Christian leaders and their organizations. He is also the author of In Pursuit of Leadership.You can find out more about at www.LeadershipDynamics.org For more information, visit LeadershipDynamics.org, LeadershipDynamics.wordpress.com or contact mail@LeadershipDynamics.org  You can follow Greg on Twitter at@LdshpDynamics