I often find myself looking up. I wish I would always remember to look up but I sometimes choose to look down. Looking down can be good if it prevents you from stubbing your toe or keeps you from falling. But generally, looking down means that you are discouraged and unhappy and have forgotten to trust in God to work everything out according to His will for you. I have been guilty of looking down when I should have spent more time looking up.
This week I looked up when I heard the sounds of planes overhead. They were close and seemed to be flying just over the tops of trees. Most were the recognizable color yellow of spray planes covering the crops to keep them safe from destruction. They fly with such precision and can mostly cover exactly where they are supposed to and not another inch and are mostly careful to not cover anything else. I admire the ability of the pilots. It reminds me that God covers us with precision with exactly what each one of us needs. My needs are not your needs and you do not get treated with the same treatment that I receive. I am glad that God knows what I need and doesn't give me things that others need.
I was asked to do an errand for my husband this week. He had been spending several frustrating hours working on a lawn mower but the light that he had been using had burned out. He was in great need of a new bulb and asked me to bring it to him--save him steps that he was almost too tired to do. So I found a different bulb and was on my way to the "mower repair shop", otherwise known to us--the "new barn", though the truth is it is our only barn! This was a day or so after we had received over 4 inches of much needed rain that had made everything very wet as it came slow enough to really soak in. I was walking, the 8 chickens were scattered around doing chicken things, in the barn, in their house, in the machine shed, and in the garden. And Garry was on the ground working on the mower. As I walked toward the barn, I suddenly heard noises of something crashing out of a nearby tree, falling and crashing on other branches, taking them down along and finally landing with a loud thud right in front of me--surprised me! Garry heard and wondered what had happened. The chickens heard it and cackled and squawked loudly and began running from many directions to any lace different from where they were. How often do you have a soggy rotten chunk of tree trunk fall to the ground right in front of you? I should have been looking up to see the danger ahead of me.
It made me stop and think about how I could have been right under where that trunk happened to fall and at that very moment if I had timed things a bit differently. You just never know what lies ahead each day as you travel through the hours God gives each of us. But we know who we can trust to give us the guidance and safety we need. The devil tries to side track our missions each day. We need to trust God's timing and not try to control it ourselves. Put my trust in Him, not in myself. A day with God is always a better day.
But the time I most want to be looking up is a day that I hope is not long from now. I want to look up someday and see a promised cloud coming closer and closer and within the cloud I expect to look up and see our King and Redeemer coming to rescue us from this world of sin and sorrow. It will be a wonderful day when I can look up and know that the things of this world are ending.
