“Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you!” 1 Kings 8:27
“You, O Lord, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.” Psalm 3:3
“O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens…
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?” Psalm 8:1,3-4
“The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.” Psalm 19:1-4
“I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth..” Psalm 121:1-2
“Lift up your hands to the holy place
and bless the Lord!” Psalm 134:2
Creation shouts the glory of God, heavenly lights and skies draw sights upward beyond the world to imagine eternity beyond. There is something about the dwelling place of God that begs us to consider eternity and that there is much more to life than we can see and know here below. There is something about the highness of God that lifts heart, mind, soul, and hands as an expression of will. Beholding the heavens magnifies our smallness and God’s immeasurable greatness.
There is much that hums and buzzes and grinds in the course of days bumped and shoved by necessity, distraction, and interruption. We tangle ourselves in various affairs of people and places and problems, ofttimes never stopping to look up. To pause the controls, come up for air, and gulp in the view above is a healthy and meaningful exercise. The heaviness of life and cares are but wisps to the great I AM, the confusion and miscommunication that unsettle us are strokes in the Artist’s hands to illustrate His beauty and perfection. The depth of our angst and sorrow and disappointment gets swallowed in the vast eternity of space, upheld by the Almighty. (Colossians 1:16-17)
Where are we crushed by cares, bent by circumstances? What conundrums consume our mental energy and steal our near-sighted focus? Are we too often hunched over devices and absorbed in the world into which they suck us? Straighten the neck, tilt it back, and look up! Behold the works of the Creator’s fingers! Hear the declaration of His glories! Take in the expanse of His wide and deep love, His vast mercies, His unlimited knowledge! Exalt Him! He is more than enough and beyond our imagining! (Ephesians 3:14-21)
What is the Lord on high bidding us set aside or leave behind in order to look up? What disagreements, resentments, regrets, and past hurts keep being revisited, dunking us down? When will we let them go and raise empty, open hands? How different life looks when we lift up our eyes, how lovely the world when we sing His praise!
Lord, give me the magical blend of bowing my will and lifting my eyes and hands, in surrendered dependence and exalted, infinite praise.
As the rain and snow 