Birds eye view

Up, looking down....or down looking up....a birds eye view. Sometimes, and I mean sometimes, I wish I were a bird. I only wish this for the view. It's got to be beautiful way up there looking down. I am petrified of heights. Actually, I am glad God made me a human with two legs to walk on the earth. Every now and then some of us get the opportunity to fly in an airplane and see these breathtaking earth forms. We're still not birds. They get to do this constantly as they move about during their days and nights.

I like to watch people. I could drive to a mall or baseball/football stadium, a park and sit and watch people all day. I don't do this, but on occasion when I am tired of shopping or doing whatever I am doing, I sit and watch. I watch how people interact, how they dress, how they walk, their expressions, their body figures and I wonder if they are happy and I wonder if I would have anything in common with those strangers.

I sat at a swim meet yesterday. I sat with my daughter and we played checkers, read books ate popcorn and I watched people. I watched people greeting other people, yelling with passion for their children in a race, looking intently at their children's times and I watched the children on deck preparing for a swim, swimming, getting out and being greeted by their team mates for a job well done. People interacting in a fond, enthusiastic, spirited way with each other for 5 hours.

We all do it and sometimes we don't realize it, but we judge. There are times we let our minds wonder and we find ourselves judging others compared to ourselves. We may think "that person needs to change their fashion statement", or "I'll never let myself get that large in size." Maybe we don't intend to do any judging, but at one point in our lives we began noticing with our eyes our differences. It is a beautiful thing, our differences. What is not beautiful is when the eye of the beholder diminishes the beauty of the person. It sometimes can become a terrible habit. Habits are hard to change, but change is good. This habit becomes a transgression that does not create a positive feeling and specifically creates negative energy.

As I watched people yesterday, I tried to find one beautiful feature about each person I focused my eyes on for that moment. It is a practice that takes time and a constant reminder to ourselves that we each have an inner and outer beauty created by our God. This practice can in fact rid us of old habits that we might possess and have incurred over time. This method can become very endearing as we find beauty in one another.

Keeping focus on God daily, bringing our thoughts to him when our mind starts to wander or judge and allow God to take charge. Lasso those thoughts and offer them up. Be a bird and only see the beauty of God's creation. Soar to heights never discovered before by letting God take the lead and allow Him to show us the beauty within. Judgmental thoughts will be washed away as we allow His perfect grace and magnificent peace rest within us.

"Do not judge others, and God will not judge you; do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others, and God will forgive you. Give to others, and God will give to you. Indeed, you will receive a full measure, a generous helping, poured into your hands-all that you can hold. The measure you use for others is the one that God will use for you." Luke 6:37-38

We will eventually find a commonality with these strangers and our view, like that of the birds, will become unquestionably breathtaking from our own eye's view, not from a mountain top but from the ground in which our feet walk.

Take flight, let your wings soar and your eyes fixate on the beauty of each other, God's creation.