look up

Last night, we celebrated New Year's Eve with some friends and family. We ate, we played, we laughed, we watched football. It was a great day. There was no place I could have imagined as being better and no place I would have rather spent time bringing in the New Year.
Why? Because it helped me to look up.
During the half time of the football game, we all went out to a big bonfire and roasted marshmellows. The kids laughed and enjoyed the heat of a burning Christmas tree. The adults ate the marshmellows the kids burned. And then the fireworks began. And we all looked up. They were beautiful and tons of fun. We oohed and ahhed over the explosions of fire in the sky, while enjoying the heat of the fire below. It felt like family. I looked around and thought, "what a way to begin the year....all of us, looking up."
As great as that was, it was the moments that followed that caused my heart to look up. Just about everyone left to go inside and I stayed to help guard the flame. It started out as a task to keep the fire from moving where it shouldn't and to keep the little ones out of it, in case they decide to play and get burned.
It was quiet, the fire crackled. The air was crisp and cool and the heat felt good. I sat down on the picnic table and just looked up. The sky was filled with stars and though the fireworks were over, something exploded in my heart. The heavens were declaring the glory of God; and their expanse, the work of His hands. There was but a moment, when I could glimpse the greatness of God by looking up. I breathed deep and smiled, thinking to myself-what an indescribable gift.
He is so much more....more than I can even comprehend, imagine or dream. He is in a simple breath, yet shines like a star declaring His greatness from millions of miles away in a way that we can see and know and taste who He is.
It was then that I knew what this year would be about for me....
Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these {stars,} the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of {His} power not one {of them} is missing.
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.
I will be looking up and seeing His glory. I will not look at circumstances, people, places, things, programs or performance. I will be looking up to see the glory of the Lord, but I will only see it-IF I look up.
I sat on that bench, looking from the sky to the fire and realized that in looking up and seeing His glory, He sets His love on our heart and we burn with a holy flame and zeal for the world to see. When we SEE HIM, we KNOW HIM and we BURN for Him. His glory is seen in looking up...
In the following moments, there was some intentional conversation around that fire, not casual or convincing, but instead time to reflect on what our dream for the new year holds. Those moments were full of conversation about being more in love and on fire for Him. They are moments forever etched into my memory, filled with wonder and blessing as we talked about living a journey together for Him.
It was there on that bench that I decided what I was chasing this year. It was there in those moments that I realized I was going to have to step it up and that I wanted more, that I decided that my dream was to see His glory. And for the first time, I realized how that would happen.
So look up, breathe deep and see the glory of God rain down. You will see it...it just depends on where you are looking.


ALL FOR YOU