Things Are Looking Up!

By Cynthia Ruchti –

My mother was a great diagnostician. As a registered nurse, she put the gift into practice both at work—sometimes upstaging the doctors with her insights—and at home with her five kids and anyone in the community who preferred consulting with Mom before calling the doctor’s office.

She rarely misdiagnosed. Some rare combination of observation, instinct, training, experience, and God-directed wonderment caused her to proclaim, “That’s ringworm, honey.” Or, “Your leg cramps? Try taking more calcium.” Or, “If my guess is right, you have Lyme disease.”

I follow in her footsteps in a lot of ways, though I left the medical field (lab assistant) decades ago. In an effort to self-diagnose my recent headaches, I walked myself through a Mom-like problem-solving routine.

Getting enough sleep? Pretty much.

Too much caffeine? Not enough? I’ll work on that one.

How’s your vision? Needing new glasses can cause headaches. Can’t afford the answer to that one.

Wait a minute.

Sitting at the computer more hours than the day is long. Reading. Hunching over to read fine print on websites and blogs.

I’m suffering from an excess of looking down!

Some of that I can correct with some ergonomic changes, and with neck exercises. But the best cure is to spend more time looking up. Brilliant deduction, Sherlock.

Life is like that, too. The economy is…down. Gravity drags us…down. People are downhearted, downright discouraged, and downtrodden by the insults of life. But real life isn’t in the dust at our feet. It’s not embedded in the carpeting.

“Look up,” Jesus said, “for your redemption draweth nigh.” That’s how I remember it from hearing it as a child.

A current translation adds an element of headache-easing posture. When the world is swirling, reeling, chaotic, confused, Jesus tells me to stand up straight. “Stand up straight and raise your heads because your redemption is near,” Luke 21:28 CEB.

My redemption and my Redeemer are always near. Up.

PRAYER: Lord, I think I’m beginning to understand better what You meant when You told me You were the “lifter” of my head (Psalm 3:3). Help me live with straighter posture, no matter what the news, the bills, or the doctor tells me. Cause me to live aware that You are near. Up.

“Now when these things begin to occur, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption (deliverance) is drawing near,” Luke 21:28 AMP.