LOOK UP INSTEAD OF AROUND

The wildflowers I planted on my balcony did really well this summer . The packet of seeds said they would attract butterflies and hummingbirds. I felt full of hope.

One morning I heard chirping. I looked to see where it was coming from and saw a little bird perched on the rail next to the hanging pot of yellow and white flowers, chirping its little heart out. It made my own heart soar with thanksgiving. I was full of eager anticipation at the thought of what else the flowers would attract.

Several days later, I glimpsed a flurry of movement out of the corner of my eye. It turned out to be a hummingbird flitting from the pot of yellow flowers pictured above to the pot of blue ones on the table across from them. It hovered there for a while, drinking long and deep.

I could hardly contain my excitement. For sure it would be back and bring along some friends. But it didn't. In fact, I never saw another bird of any kind the rest of the summer, nor any butterflies either.

It made me sad. Not so much the lack of butterflies, because I have hardly seen any this year in my neck of the woods--not even out by the flower beds in the courtyard. But I did feel crushed by disappointment that there were no more hummingbirds. What happened? The one I had seen seemed to really be enjoying the flowers. 

And then my thoughts turned to a place where they should not have gone.

My disappointment over the hummingbird that never returned led to thoughts of other disappointments and dashed expectations. I thought of people, who at first seemed to want to be friends, and it made me so happy I had already started thanking the Lord for sending them my way, but then nothing ever came of it. 

Like the hummingbird, they were attracted to something about me, but I failed to live up to their expectations. 

Those were just fleeting thoughts though, and it took hardly any time before I reminded myself that things aren't always the way they seem. I thought of how many times I have jumped to wrong conclusions that turned out not to be what I thought at all. Maybe the hummingbird did come back, but I didn't see it. Only God knows the whole story. 

When I look up instead of around, I feel enormous gratitude for Jesus and for His unconditional love. A love that cannot be earned, and that is not contingent on the things that I do or that I have to offer. A love that is so great that He shed His blood for me on the Cross (and for you too, dear reader, if anyone is reading this) so that we could be forgiven of our sins, adopted into the family of God, and receive the gift of eternal life. 

I know that He will never leave me or forsake me, and that He is always at my side.

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For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. -- John 3:16, NIV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. -- Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. -- Romans 8:38-39, ESV