Recently I have been watching a TV show about stargazing, I loved it. I rushed out to the garage and found my scratched, bits missing Christmas gift from years past telescope and went to work setting it up again. Sitting in the cold garden at 10pm it all came back to me, focusing in on the moon and it’s markings, awesome!
Space is utterly amazing, it’s vastness, and it’s un-chartered depths, wow! As a human race we can understand solar wind and electrons, we have sent voyager 1 to the deepest space we have never reached before, wow. We have people living in the International space station constantly orbiting us, visible from earth. The sun! Now that’s incredible!
I remember something really simple in my own life, the day I looked up. Sounds stupid I know, but I was about 13 and as a boy I can remember walking with my head down, looking at the floor. I lived in Harlow, so this was sometimes a safe method to travel, but on one occasion near the sweet shop I lifted my head, don’t know why, but I lifted it up and from that day that’s where it has been. It was a significant moment.
So what, you might be thinking? Well for me this is important, I spend so much time looking down around me, this problem, that problem, this criticism, or that wrong choice, and I forget to look up.
Psalm 19:1-6 says;
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.
Choosing to look up to God is incredible. If we believe what the Bible says, Jesus has restored our relationship with God when he died and was raised to new life. Because of this, in any and every situation of life we can stop and look up.
This looking up is a simple, daily recognition for me of my love and dependence in what Jesus has done and is to me.
Now this looking up works in the ‘wow’ moments in life and the ‘why’ moments too.
When the good moments turn into the trials and mountains to climb, looking up is the way, to look up and remember you’re not alone, you’re not forgotten, you’re loved and a plan is at work.
One that may lead you through the darkest valleys or the sweetest roads, but fixing you eyes upwards on Jesus the Christ is essential!
Image credit: Photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture / CC BY 2.0
