Buggy trees, city lights, and New Zealand

I am one prone to day dream and while this may not come as any surprise to those who know me I'm sure there are those who see me as completely competent, always in control, level headed and right on track.  I'm sure, really, I am sure, surely there's one person who sees me this way!  No?  Well, let me continue to dwell in the land of fantasy where I am mayor and if I don't like you, you don't exist.  But I digress.....

One day earlier this week I was watching "Reflections" on tv.  Now for those of you who aren't familiar with this program, let me explain.  It's a lovely half hour of gorgeous pictures from around the world that is set to beautiful music with scriptures that come and go on the screen.  It's really peaceful and I frequently use it to escape my children refocus after a hectic day as a mom.  On this day there was a segment of pictures taken in New Zealand.  If you've ever seen the movie "The Lord of the Rings", you know how beautiful it is.  There was a picture of a valley where the mountains were so close together they were almost touching.  Covering the sides of each mountain were deep forest, luscious and deep green.  I remember thinking, as I gazed at the picture, "I wish I were right there, right there by that tree. That's it, I wish I were a deer on the side of that mountain, or maybe a squirrel in that tree, yeah, a squirrel, a deer would have trouble standing on a hill that steep.  I'll be a squirrel, or better yet, I'll be a bug, yeah, that's it, I'll be a bug on that tree right there.  It's settled then, I'm a bug on that branch of that tree right there."

As I gazed at the picture before me and I imagined my little buggy self swallowed up in that place, I realized something.  If I were, indeed, a little bug on that little branch of that little tree on the side of that big huge mountain, I would not be able to see it the way I did at that moment.  I wouldn't be able to see much past my own little leaf and my own little buggy home.  My world would not necessarily be one of beauty, at least not to my own tiny bug eyes.  I like a leaf and a branch and a tree as much as the next person, but they couldn't compare to the wondrous view found up higher.

That, my friends, is when the light went on.  How many times have we looked at our surroundings and saw only the same old leaf, the same old branch on the same old tree?  How many times have we seen only what is right in front of us and missed the bigger picture?  Sometimes we need to be reminded that there is, in fact, a bigger picture, a picture we often miss as we live little lives on little branches everywhere.

Sometimes we all need a new perspective, a new view.  I remember one night J and I were treated to a night in a luxury hotel in downtown Atlanta.  I had worked downtown, had been through downtown on many occasions and had never thought of it as a place of beauty.  It was dirty, nasty place with too many cars, too many people, and too much stress.  On this night, though, we were staying on one of the top floors in the high rise hotel and the room had one full wall of nothing but floor to ceiling windows.  As J pulled back the miles of curtains and the view was exposed it took my breath away.  The lights spilled out before us as if the stars had suddenly come loose from their moorings and fell to earth to dance among the streets of the city.  The beauty was spectacular.  I had never, in all my time spent downtown seen the magnificence of the cityscape.  It took a new perspective, it took coming up higher.

It is a lesson I plan on applying to my own life; this idea of coming up higher.  When my life seems less than spectacular, less than appealing and I'm convinced my lot is to live a life of drudgery and compromise, I hope I am reminded of that night, and that little bug on the hill side.  The Lord calls to us to come up higher.  When we allow Him to change our perspective and see with His eyes, we see the beauty that is our life.  Hopefully, we will understand we play a part in something much bigger than ourselves and our own little leaf.

So rise up! Rise up and be blessed!  Blessed by His view of our lives.  My goal this week will be to keep a little bug in mind, a little bug, a leaf, a tree, and a forest covered hillside, but most of all the beauty that encompasses it all.  We are but one piece, may we allow the Lord to lift us up to see the puzzle as a whole and to understand our part in it.

Until next time, I'll be here day dreaming, but this time, not about being a bug, unless it's a bug that has hopped a ride aboard an eagle!

Soaked in His blessings,

Spokenfor