Look up!

 I find that when I'm out walking these days (which I've been doing quite a bit of lately!), I tend to look down. Now, for safety reasons, that may not be a bad idea...I need to be aware of any puddles and dips in the road, and make sure I don't twist my ankle on a branch or rock that made its way to my path. But, once I realize I've been doing this a while, I also notice my neck getting stiff. So, I look up...and oh, how much better it is to look up! When I'm looking down, I don't notice much besides how the rain left a water mark on the asphalt, or how some blossoms and seeds have already fallen to the ground from the fresh spring blooms.

But when I look up, I see so much beauty...the trees are red and green and white as spring breathes its life into all the trees and bushes in the neighborhood. I see how the birds flit from tree to housetop to tree...and I still cannot understand how they fly at all!! And when I look up at trees from beneath, everything has a new perspective.

And I think we tend, so easily, to set our focus downward or inward; when we set our gaze downward, we don't see the vastness of the life that is all around us. When we keep our focus inward, we can become consumed with our failure or shortcomings, or the pain and grief that we are facing; but when we do that, we won't see the beauty and the glory of the bigger picture around us. One of my favorite Scriptures comes to mind when I think through these things...”I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

I think I spend enough time bogged down with pressure and care, feeling the strain of keeping a downward gaze...doubt, discouragement tend to dwell there. But, oh, when I look up! My troubles, my burdens, my pain seem so much smaller in the light of who He is, and the grandeur of His kingdom!

"For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity,
whose name is Holy:

'I dwell in the high and holy place,
and with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, 

to revive the spirit of the humble, 

and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.'"

Isaiah 57:15