Food and Exercise for the
Soul
| When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in
place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you
care for him? Ps. 8:3, 4, NIV. |
Ralph Waldo
Emerson once said, "The sky is the daily bread of the eyes." Just as food
feeds our body and gives us strength and health, so it is that what we
see nourishes our soul. And here is where we have a choice. We can become
anemic and stressed out by bingeing on the empty calories of visual junk
food: crowded streets, concrete cities, and pollution; the messy house,
paper-strewn desk, and dirty laundry; or television and videos produced
to titillate our passions and imprison our creativity. Or we can look up
and feed on something beyond humanity that can lower stress and heighten
spirituality, something that has always been there and always will be:
the sky.
The sky is "God's original
diet" for the human soul, to take us from mundane, minuscule human thoughts
to ones centering on God. Human beings have desecrated the earth in many
places, but the sky belongs to God. It was the very first thing He created.
"In the beginning God created the heavens" (Gen. 1:1, NIV). And throughout
the ages the sky has been the major link between God's created creatures
and the Creator. When we doubt, when we are tempted to lose faith and stumble
into discouragement, all we have to do is look up.
Viewing the sky can be good
soul exercise, too. "Wherever I am," says poet David Accord, "the night
is full of familiar stars, and every day—unless rain or snow or illness
has interfered—there is at least one uncrowded moment of renewed adventure
through the cumulus mountains, down the black canyons of storm, across
the mackerel Sahara, up the cirro-vapor trails or under the drifting cotton
of a summer afternoon."
Pause now and listen to the
words of the music of the sky: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the
skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard" (Ps. 19:1-3, NIV).
For soul health, look up.
| When you're discouraged and your soul
is hungry, feast on the sky. It's always there. Its immensity can turn
heaviness and hate into hope; its blazing beauty can turn discouragement
into delight; its blue haze can quiet and calm your stormy spirit. |
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