Looking Up (05/28/2026)

Yesterday, I went out to my porch to collect and organize my thoughts and to take a short break outside surrounded by the songs of wrens and the beauty of the outdoors. And I did what I always do, I looked up. And there it was! A perfect “Z” in the clouds. And I said out loud, “Amazing!”  How do things like that just appear? I’m not sure, but I’d never have seen it if it weren’t for looking up.

Looking up is my nature. It has been since I was a tyke. My folks used to tell people about all the times they had to rescue me because I’d spotted something high and climbed to get it only to get trapped up high. I realized I’m an optimist but not a planner from these stories.

When I got older and could leave the house alone (we used to do that in the good old days, you know, eat breakfast, disappear til supper), I would find a place to lay on the ground and watch the clouds as they morphed into recognizable shapes. Those are some of my favorite memories as are the memories of climbing the neighborhood trees to get a loftier perspective.

I have never abandoned looking up. My family will tell you that is one of my flaws. I am so prone to looking up that I fall a lot because I don’t have a clue about what is on my level in front of me. So, it is a household rule at Grandma Kate’s that nothing is allowed to be left on the floor because it is a tripping hazard for one who is always looking up.

But probably the truest reason that I am always looking up is the fact that I know with all my being that I am not the highest, there is and always will be one higher and greater than me. My looking up always is actually the hallmark characteristic of one who learned early and whose memory has been repeatedly refreshed that “the Way” is only traversed in humility. It is that realization that is behind my Sunday hats, honestly. Before I walk into church, I put on my hat and silently remind myself of the One above me “in whom I live and move and have my being.”

Always looking up came make one seem a dreamer. I prefer to see it as one who knows there is more. And that “more” can make all the difference in the world. It can help inspire us in difficult times, it can keep us going no matter how low we may feel at the moment, it can give us hope, and it surely always give us love. It isn’t really an “it,” we all know. It is a who – our all-loving and all-present Lord.

Today, let us try looking up. We may be amazed at what we spot. We may be amazed at what we discover not just in the world but in us.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.