Believe Manifesto

I was sitting outside with my husband at the fire pit. No phone, no distractions, just me and the moment in my Adirondack chair on a beautiful fall night. I leaned back…and my breath caught. Up in the sky the stars shone, there was variations of blue, black, and indigo in the sky and I remembered what it was like to look up. To take in the beauty of God’s creation that is all around us.

Even now as I write this, I tear up thinking about that moment. Not just because of the beauty and wonder in the sky but also a sadness and regret. When I was looking at the stars, I tried to think back to the last time I had looked up at the sky and I couldn’t remember exactly. But, I knew it must have been at least four years or more. Four. Years. That is a long time to go without basking in the wonder of creation!

You might be thinking, “Who cares?!” I’m writing this to remind you just like God reminded me that night–He cares. I had forgotten that everything God created is for us, but also to point us back to him–always. When I think of the ways we are distracted: phones, television, radio, social media, even electricity, they stand between us and creation. It soaks up our time so we have less time to soak up him. It gets our minds swirling. It makes our bodies strive and hustle, usually for our own gain and not for HIS glory.

If that steps on your toes, I’m glad! It stepped on mine too. I think sometimes we need our toes stepped on, because guess what it causes us to do…look up. We are reminded of how much we need him. That he is our most primal need. We need relationship with him, conversation with him, and most of all we need salvation through him.

Long ago, they had no choice but to look up. God created the stars to guide us. Another piece of his intricate plan was to provide everything we need. Including direction both spiritually and geographically. When they traveled in ships they used the stars to know where to go at night and stay on course towards their destination. There was no GPS.

He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name.

Amos 5:8

Recently I started reading a book called, The Life you Long For by Christy Nockels. She talks about the ways we can live out our lives as God’s Beloved children:

I find it incredibly beautiful and encouraging that God made it so that God made it so that anyone who puts her trust in Him now bears the highest calling in life: to be the Beloved child of God. And what’s most vital to this calling–to keep looking to God–anyone can do.

My hope today is that each of us will take the time to look up. To remember that the most important thing in this life is the God of the universe. If we can keep our eyes on him, everything else will fall into place.