Lift your your eyes

 

There’s a gospel song that goes, in part, “Lift your weary eyes and look above the shadows, all your many troubles will be gone…” 

I was thinking of that this morning as I was wrapped in my blanket sitting on the deck waiting for the dogs. The people next door have three dogs, neatly kept and well cared for, but scattered around and two boats parked in their yard.    The boats aren’t neatly parked but one was just left at an awkward angle on the slope of the hill.  It’s not particularly attractive, but it is their yard.  

Then the house down the hill from us has an old car, an old pickup, a camper and two boats squeezed behind their house and garage.   They are all crowded in among the natural sagebrush and bunch grass-- seems like tempting haven for rattlesnakes to me. 

Anyway, the combination of properties there aren’t what I’d like to see from our deck.  BUT, and here is where the song comes in, all I have to do is ‘lift my eyes above…’   Above the clutter I can see the sage and grasses in waves stretching to the mountains where the sun is sending its glow above their ridges.   I guess I could moan and grouch about the boats and the old cars, but the view above them is worth it all. 

And I was thankful for it.

Then I came inside and it was warm.  I went to the kitchen and turned on the water to run a pan of water to boil Rachael's breakfast eggs.  I remembered the day when I had to dip water from a barrel to cook or wash.  I was thankful for the stream of water running out of the faucet.  It was so easy. 

I set the pot on the stove and didn’t have to build a fire under it.  My Ma and Pappy had to do that. My mother in law had to do that. I learned to do that.  I know how, I can cook on an old wood stove.  I can cook on an open fire.

But this morning I was thankful I didn’t have to.

The Psalmist said, “I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.”  I never considered the verse until I saw the mountains of New Mexico.   No matter what is happening in my life, no matter how I might worry, those mountains endure.  The Hand of God that placed them there is the Hand that controls.  He sends help when it is needed.

And for that we can be thankful.