Look Up!

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.    Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Colossians 3:1-2 (NIV)

Lift up your eyes!  You are certainly a creature of time, but you are also a child of eternity.  You are a citizen of heaven, and an alien and exile on earth, a pilgrim travelling to the celestial city.

"I read some years ago of a young man who found a five-dollar bill on the street and who 'from that time on never lifted his eyes when walking.  In the course of years he accumulated 29,516 buttons, 54,172 pins, 12 cents, a bent back and a miserly disposition.'  But look what he lost.  He couldn't see the radiance of the sunlight, the sheen of the stars, the smile on the face of his friends, or the blossoms of springtime, for his eyes were in the gutter.  There are too many Christians like that.  We have important duties on earth, but we must never allow them to preoccupy us in such a way that we forget who we are or where we are going."

These are words written in 1976 by John Stott, who is widely respected as one of the most important evangelical, spiritual, and theological writers of the twentieth century.  He is here encouraging us to renew our acquaintance with the glory that awaits us and begin to anticipate its wonder.

It brings to mind those amazing words at the beginning of Hebrews 12: Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  (NKJV)

So, we think of all those great Christians who have gone before us.  They have already entered the gates of the New Jerusalem and are urging us on to join them.

Glory awaits.   Look up!