I Look Up

Recently my friend sang the song "I Will Lift My Eyes" by Bebo Norman and it made me think about how often I lift my eyes whether I am in a moment of joy, sorrow or simple gratitude.

I do not lift my eyes because I look up to a God that sits on a throne the great director of life; I lift my eyes in wonder.

When I look to the heavens, the night sky, the stars, the sun, and the clouds-I am in awe.

            I look up and I am drawn into a sense of greatness.  I wonder at the beauty and magnitude of all that I see and cannot see; all that is within my grasp and the infinity of what is beyond my reach.   I am reminded of my place in this world; I am but one person in a small village. 

            One of our children's teacher use to say about his students going off to college "they are frogs in a very small pond right now, soon they will be in a lake and the world will change."  When I look up I am moving out of the pond, I am humbled by my smallness. 

            My eyes are drawn up and away from the chaos, the confusion and the clutter of living.  It is in the vast expanse of "heaven" that I can gain reassurance and comfort from the saints that have gone before me.  Whatever I am experiencing someone has or is going through the same thing. 

My challenges, my celebrations are unique to me....but not so unique.

            I lift my eyes to join my neighbor, the known and unknown.  I join the neighbor that has gone before me, the one that lives with me and the ones that will come after me.

 I lift my eyes and I am not alone.

"I will lift my eyes to the Maker

Of the mountains I can't climb

I will lift my eyes to the calmer

Of the oceans raging wild

I will lift my eyes to the Healer

Of the hurt I hold inside

I will lift my eyes, lift my eyes

To You"---Bebo Norman