“Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
“Who created all these?
“He who brings out the starry host one by one
“and calls forth each of them by name.
“Because of his great power and mighty strength,
“not one of them is missing.” — Isaiah 40:26.
Each morning and evening, in addition to the general moving around involved in daily life, Max and I head out for our regular walks. That’s 30 minutes first thing, while the coffee is making, and then 45 minutes before bed. It’s good for me, it’s good for the dog and it helps keep me around my 14,000-step goal most days and my 100,000 for the week.
It’s also good for my spirit, offering uninterrupted time for silence, or meditation, or more focused thinking.
This is especially true when I remember to look up. And I am talking both literally and metaphorically. ‘Up’ is more than a direction, it is a state of mind and an orientation of spirit. Literal or not, I tend to connect more with the glory and the light of God when I look around me and into the heavens than when I am gazing at the sidewalk in front of my next step.
Like Sunday evening. It was around 10:30 p.m. when I was walking past the soccer field on Holding Avenue. The sky, full with thin clouds passing in front of a full moon, opened up like an invitation. “Lord, our Lord,” the psalmist sings, “how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens.” — Psalm 8.
Sometimes just paying attention is an act of worship.
We were built with a considerable capacity for wonder, and exercising that muscle is — I believe — an important element of living a full and balanced life.
So, this is my devotional assignment. Find something each day this week that leaves you breathless with wonder and grateful for life. And, if at all possible, find this without looking into the screen of some electronic device.
Just grateful to be alive and paying attention. — DEREK.
