One of the great spiritual disciplines of summer is remembering to look up.
This may not sound especially profound at first.
The Church has traditionally emphasized prayer, worship, scripture reading, generosity, service, fasting, and various other practices that require a certain amount of effort and commitment.
Looking up seems suspiciously easy.
Yet I am increasingly convinced that many of us spend a surprising amount of our lives looking down.
We look down at our phones.
We look down at our grocery lists.
We look down at our work.
We look down at our feet while hurrying from one place to another.
Entire days can pass without our ever paying much attention to the world above eye level.
And that is a shame.
Because God has filled the upper half of creation with remarkable things.
On a recent walk, I found myself stopping for no better reason than a cloud.
Now, I should clarify that it was a particularly impressive cloud.
It possessed the sort of dramatic architecture normally associated with cathedrals or federal government buildings.
It towered above the horizon in glorious white layers.
I stood there staring at it for several minutes.
Had anyone passed by, they might reasonably have assumed that I was either receiving a divine vision or had become momentarily confused.
In truth, I was simply enjoying the cloud.
That was all.
And yet it felt strangely holy.
The Psalmist writes, “The heavens declare the glory of God.”
I suspect we sometimes read those words too quickly.
The heavens are not merely decorative.
They are not simply the ceiling above our lives.
They are part of creation’s ongoing testimony.
The sky preaches.
The clouds preach.
The stars preach.
The changing colours of a summer sunset preach.
Not with words, certainly.
But with wonder.
Wonder has always been one of God’s favourite teaching tools.
Children understand this naturally.
A child can become completely captivated by a butterfly, a robin, a puddle, or a particularly interesting rock.
Adults tend to lose that gift.
We become efficient.
Practical.
Goal-oriented.
We no longer stop for butterflies because we have meetings.
We no longer examine interesting rocks because we have responsibilities.
And we certainly do not pause to admire clouds because we are very busy people doing very important things.
At least that is what we tell ourselves.
The problem is that wonder is not a distraction from spiritual life.
Wonder is often the doorway into spiritual life.
It reminds us that the world is larger than our worries.
It reminds us that beauty exists without needing to accomplish anything.
It reminds us that God continues creating astonishing things whether we notice them or not.
That realization can be wonderfully humbling.
The universe gets along quite nicely without our constant supervision.
This is comforting news for those of us who secretly suspect that everything depends on us.
Summer provides abundant opportunities to practice this theology of looking up.
Watch the flight of gulls over the water.
Study the shapes of clouds drifting across a blue sky.
Sit outside after sunset and wait for the first stars to appear.
Observe how the moon quietly takes its place in the evening sky without requiring a committee meeting or strategic planning process.
Creation possesses a remarkable confidence.
It simply does what God created it to do.
Jesus often pointed people toward creation when teaching about faith.
He spoke of lilies.
Birds.
Seeds.
Fields.
Vines.
Apparently our Lord considered the natural world an excellent classroom.
Perhaps we should spend more time there.
The beauty of creation does not solve all of life’s problems.
The bills still arrive.
The lawn still grows.
The world remains complicated.
But for a few moments, when we lift our eyes and pay attention, we remember something essential.
We are living in a world saturated with God’s presence.
The heavens still declare the glory of God.
The clouds still wander across the sky like great floating sermons.
And every now and then, if we remember to look up, we may hear what they have been saying all along.
Thanks be to God.
Companion Prayer
Gracious Creator,
Open our eyes to the beauty that surrounds us each day.
When we become distracted by busyness, teach us again the holy habit of looking up.
Help us to see your glory in the clouds, your faithfulness in the turning of the seasons, and your presence in the wonder of the world you have made.
Give us grateful hearts that delight in simple gifts, and quiet spirits that make room for awe.
May the beauty of creation draw us closer to you, and may our lives become a song of thanksgiving for all your blessings.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.