Reflecting on this life and it’s activities is almost an automatic past-time as you get older. You can even end up zoning out … and sometimes you might just plain fall asleep in the process! This seems to happen fairly regularly when there is more of your life behind you than there is in front! 😂 However… taking the time to be observant is an enormously overlooked life-skill. 

Humanity is always busy. This life is about hurry hurry, rush rush, everywhere — gotta be, gotta do, gotta make money, gotta buy stuff! Gotta help this guy … gotta yell at that one! If we sit down at all,  it’s because we simply have to veg-out and stop thinking, purely because we are exhausted – mentally, and physically. I believe we will build our own faith if we take the time to notice the beautiful things God does for us every single day, plus the incredibly lovely things He has put all around us.

Here’s a verse to chew on: “Wait and listen, everyone who is thirsty! Come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Yes, come, buy [priceless, spiritual] wine and milk without money and without price [simply for the self-surrender that accepts the blessing].” Amp. Isaiah 55:1-3. Maybe, if we have stopped being thirsty, it’s because we are trying to satisfy spiritual needs with physical activity and busyness etc? Trust me, that won’t work. If you feel like you are working yourself to the bone but you are going nowhere, this could easily be the reason. Perhaps you’ve lost the power to observe and reflect.

True rest, joy and peace only comes from Jesus. From knowing Him. From seeing this life from His POV. I believe that is why Christ said: “… consider the lilies” AND  “… consider the birds.”  Mankind can get so busy providing, buying, doing and planning, we can easily forget this life is not all there is! Walking with Jesus down here on earth is preparation for walking with Him up there in heaven. How do I know that? Because the bible says: “…on earth as it is in heaven.” There ain’t nobody rushing about in heaven! There is no need, time as we know it, doesn’t exist up there.

Being reflectively observant means we take some moments to actually pay a different kind of attention to the world around us. We aren’t racing along so task-focussed we have no thought for anything else.  My favourite thing to look at when I am just chilling, is birds. It seemed to me, when I prayed over this, that birds have another lesson to teach me. To start with Jesus told us to consider them – so that kind of makes it legal! 

Did you ever wonder why Jesus mentioned flowers and birds as good illustrations of the way we are to regard His kingdom? As I’ve said I watch birds a lot. It seems to me that the only time they are not busy is when they are sleeping! However,…birds never actually ASK where their food comes from. Aha!— thinks I… so perhaps this bible thought is about not busyness but what actually occupies or fills our minds. Like the stuff we think about as we go about our days? Maybe birds are simply occupied “…with the self-surrender that accepts the blessing.“ 

Have WE learnt the self-surrender that accepts the daily blessings that God sends us? We know He does bless us all the time because He is a far better Father than our earthly fathers ever could be! (Matthew 7:9-11.) But can it be that we are so busy rushing here and there and everywhere, that we don’t notice, or even pause and see what He is doing? I believe in the power of pausing. The bible calls that “selah” – it means pause and think on this.

So I’ve asked the Lord to help me to stop, and pay attention to whatever He is doing, plus what is going on around me. I am learning to take the time, moment by moment, to notice and thank Him for doing it. Our steps are ordered by Him. (Psalm 37: 23,24.) That means there is not one fraction of a second in your life and mine that is not considered, gazed upon, and lovingly reflected upon, by God Himself. Just that thought should blow anyone’s mind into reflection! Yet another great way to know our Heavenly Father is to see this life through His eyes, and He is never in a hurry.

It is amazing that there are things that we can miss from day to day, unless we are prompted by the Holy Spirit. However, He is not a TADA! kind of a Person. But He will bring these things to our attention if we ask Him to, so we can carefully observe and reflect on them. Bye. 😊👋

Proverbs 4:20-22“My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.”