My husband and I once had a neighbor we referred to as “The Curmudgeon.”
From the day we moved in, we tried to be friendly. While his wife was cordial, he was the opposite. We asked her one day if we had offended him. “No, he’s just like that. He is so focused on what he’s doing that he doesn’t notice anything else,” she said.
One day from my kitchen window, I saw him walking with his head down. His wife had just planted an array of colorful flowers exquisitely designed by the Maker of heaven and earth. I bet he’s never even noticed them, I thought.
What could be so important that it requires one hundred percent focus to one’s detriment? He’s a musician, and I understand creative souls. But a key to creativity is attuning to God’s world, not tuning it out.
Evelyn Underhill wrote, “For lack of attention, a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day.”
Observing my neighbor’s severely stooped posture, I suspected his looking-down habit had developed for years.
That afternoon, my husband and I attended a production where an illusionist exuded such joy. He climaxed the show with an airy fantasy image that encouraged us to look for the pink cotton-candy clouds—meaning we shouldn’t miss the wondrous things in life. He said some people never see them because they never look up.
A couple hours after returning from the show, we witnessed a pink sunset, and a few clouds did resemble the spun-sugar confection.
Our home is perched on a ridge in the Ozark Mountains where glorious, ever-changing views abound. Our music-loving neighbor did not realize that Julie Andrews was right when she proclaimed “the hills are alive with the sound of music.”
God can help us look up every day. He doesn’t want our necks to become stiffened into a head-down position where we see only sidewalk cracks—not when He has provided so much beauty. And when we look to the hills, we can listen for Him. God doesn’t want us to miss His creation or His voice. His help comes from there.
What are some ways you can look up instead of down?
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com.)
(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)
A Wisconsin native, Lauri Lemke Thompson enjoys living with her husband in the lovely Ozark mountains in Branson, Missouri. She is active in the Ozarks Chapter of the American Christian Writers and Christian Women’s Connection and volunteers for the local hospital. She authored a book called Hitting Pause, a collection of her articles and devotions. Her articles also appear in the Branson Tri-Lakes News.