Look Up

     I am sitting here watching a dozen or so spider monkeys play in the tree tops here in the rainforest in Costa Rica. I guess I don’t really know if they are playing — but from my vantage point it does look like fun. Swinging from branch to branch — leaping in the air, flying along the tree tops. The baby bouncing alongside her momma. I am actually totally enthralled by this scene. Capitvated. I find myself sitting here just watching and I realize that there is a smile on my face. There is joy in my heart watching God’s creation just be exactly who they are supposed to be.

     And two things strike me.

     First, I would seriously have missed this all had I failed to look up. I am happily sitting here by the turtle shaped pool as it finally cools down a bit — reading, writing and listening to some worship music. I could easily have sat here for the next two hours before dinner and never looked up from my book or notepad. And if I hadn’t looked up, I would have completely missed this little piece of joy I am experiencing right now.

     I think life is like that sometimes. We get so content going about in our normal routine, like sitting at a table reading a book and writing — that we miss the world in front of us. We miss all these amazing things God has for us — if we would only look up.

Isaiah 40:26 “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: who created all these?”

Psalm 27:13 “I remain confident in this, I will see goodness in the Lord in the land of the living”

Philippians 2:1-4 “Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from this love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.”

     What would you see if you looked up? Would you see a friend who is maybe withdrawn because he / she is hurting and struggling — who just needs someone to see them and care. Would you see some larger injustice in the world that God is calling you to attack — would you see the widowed, the poor, the orphan, the least of these? Would you see the person that you don’t really like to be around — really see them. See that the anger they display is just the only way they know how to be. Would you see that they still are a child of God — who He loves and cares for? Loved by the Father just as much as He loves you.  Needing someone to stick around long enough to break through that impossible, broken, hardened heart to find the hurt and to fill the hole with God’s love.

     What would you see if you stopped walking ( or sitting) blindly where God had you and looked up to where God wants to you be.

     What do I see? What are my monkeys?

     The second thing that strikes me is the joy I find in just watching God’s creatures be who they were made to be. I think we humans may be the only ones who get this wrong over and over again. I don’t recall ever seeing a dog try to be anything but a dog, or a fish trying to be a parakeet. These creatures know if they are supposed to swim in the ocean or wag their tail when scratched behind the ears. They know if they are to fly high in the sky or to rule the jungle. They know if they are supposed to waddle or quack, meow, roar, slither, soar, or yes — even pop effortlessly from branch to branch in the trees.

     Wouldn’t it be great if we could know just as easily what we were called to be. If we knew where our feet were supposed to go, what our lives were supposed to look like.

The only way us living breathing, thinking, choosing imperfect human race can get there is to stop thinking and choose to let God be our instincts. Let God guide us and tell us where to fly, step, leap or even be still.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is true worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is. His good, pleasing and perfect will”.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old is gone and the new is here”

     All this because I took a second and looked up.

     Look up next time you find yourself content — see what God has waiting for you — dancing in the tops of the trees.