Looking up!

Although our former home in Motherwell is now the legal property of someone else, I pass it on a regular basis as I travel between that town and our current (Scottish) home.  My feelings are mixed!   As I pass, I can see some of the changes that are already being made to what was my home for twenty years.

There are, however, at least three things that I doubt will be changed - the three Velux windows that I installed many years ago.  This was all part of a major project to convert the loft area into two bedrooms - one for each of my daughters - and a 'common area' for use by both.   I still recall having fitted the first Velux, and lying down on the newly-installed bed, admiring my handiwork!   As I did so, even the Tower Block of flats across the road disappeared from view.  All that I could see was the sky, with the clouds drifting by.

It was the sort of view that dear old Noah had from the ark!  He had been instructed, by God, to make only one window in that massive, box-shaped, structure - and that was to be in the roof.  There was only one direction in which to look, and it was UP.  In fact, the opening was nothing more, or les, than a skylight towards heaven!

If there had been windows in the sides of that strange, multi-storied, craft then the righteous old patriarch would have been tempted to gaze on the devastation and destruction that was all around him as the flood waters rose.  The sight would certainly have filled him with sorrow and, later, as the ark floated on the surface of the heaving waters, with no landmark to be seen, might also have filled him with alarm.  The Lord knew this and so, in order to guard His obedient servant from such distressing thoughts, He endsured that he could only gaze heavenward.

We, too, are surrounded by despair; by political and economic chaos (in spite of the Chancellor's fine words!); by ever-decreasing moral standards; by violence and depravity that causes us to wonder if things can get any worse (they can - and probably will!); by exploitation, and greed - a stormy world of sin and death.  In all of this, we need to constantly 'look up', rather than let our hearts be troubled by external circumstances (cf.John 14:1ff).  The grace that is needed will come from above - as will our Saviour,Whose return is clearly predicted and, many of us believe, gloriously imminent.

"Looking Up" helps us to keep everything else in the perspective of eternity, and enables us to carry on with joy and assurance.  In a 'one-liner' that I picked up many years ago: "When the outlook is dark, try the uplook!"