The High Window View

For the past few days I have been viewing the world through a third story window.  In the beginning the things seen were the expected things.  When we are up high our first inclination is to look down toward the ground.  And, so I saw and watched the cars moving about on distance roads, the smaller looking people scurrying about as they hurried toward the thing which hurried them, and the details of the landscape carefully set in place on the earth.  What I found myself seeing was interesting, but not really surprising.

 

However, after more time than would be required by most, it seemed that my eyes were opened to see things not seen.  I suddenly realized I was looking at the world with a tree top view.  At home I had often wondered what it would be like to be a squirrel or a hawk roosting on top of one of our tall pecan trees.  "What could they see?" I often wondered.  Through the window I began to see some of the world they see.  I noticed, too, how the distant horizon is no longer defined by the place where ground meets sky, but where sky meets the distant green tree line.  Morning sunrises are different in the higher places.  Even approaching rain clouds are seen in a different way.

 

The more I saw, the more amazing was the view.  My new view from the high windows also made me think about how my looking for God's presence in my life and in the world is often tainted by what I expect to see instead of according to the new unfolding possibilities which are out there if only I would take the time to cast aside old ways of looking toward the Kingdom.  A seminary prof used to tell us take a different seat each day with hopes that we might be open to a new perspective.  Maybe we need a new place to sit and a new window through which to look as we go forward in our journey toward God.