Glory happening...lift up your gaze!

         Glory happening on the greenway--

         Who would have thought?  On a regular old, ordinary early morning walk, glory flashes all around us.  Wish I could take better pictures, because the combination of my terrible photography skills and an old iphone doesn't begin to do it justice.  The vibrant pinks and oranges painted the entire morning sky--it truly was a gigantic, unmistakable finger pointing straight to our majestic Creator.  
        "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands...In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.  It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.  It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth." (Ps.19:1,4-6)  What a creation...what a Creator!  What a sun...what a Son!
         That magnificent sunrise portended a beautiful February day.  But by the next morning, it was grey, rainy, and gloomy.  Ugh.  I trudged outside with Mr. B, struggling to muster up some energy (well, I struggled; his energy never seems to diminish).  Same old, same old...
        Until I happened to lift my gaze from the pavement up to the skies.  Mother Teresa was so right: "All our trouble comes from looking around rather than up."  I'd amend that to include looking down...how much do we miss by keeping our eyes and hearts focused downward rather than upward?  But I digress. When I happened to glance up at the foreboding sky, I saw a majestic blue heron perched on a tippy top branch surveying the greenway.  

        "Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches." (Ps.104:12)
        "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?'  (Mt.6:25-26)
        How thankful I am for the reminders all around us of God's greatness, glory, and grace in His creation and His creatures.  The skies, the sun, the moon and the stars wordlessly, but eloquently, declare His glory.  The birds sing of His faithfulness...and their song resounds with the command not to worry but to trust.  Oh how I need the Lord's constant visual aides to worship, trust, and thank...and not to worry, complain, and compare.
         As Tim Keller prays: "Maker of heaven and earth, Your creation speaks and sings to us of Your greatness.  May I neither despise nature, failing to care reverently for its integrity, nor worship nature, failing to let it point me beyond itself to Your glory, which even it only 'fitfully reflects.'"
        Amen!  I don't know what you might be going through today, but can I give one simple piece of advice--lift up your eyes.  Stop looking down or around, and gaze upward.  Look up physically and spiritually.  Just as surely as the sun will rise in the morning and the birds will perch on the trees, God is there.  He is forever faithful, loving, good, gracious, wise, and powerful.  He will never ever ever leave you nor forsake you.
         As my dear friend Kelly always says, "He's got this."  And He does.
        So lift up your gaze, and trust Him.
        To God be the glory.