When I see the compulsive activity of ants, I sometimes think of us humans as we run about in our daily tracks, absorbed in our small view of things. Stopping, clearing our minds, looking up from our feverish pre-occupations, we have a chance to see a bigger picture. That picture is still quite small compared to God’s total view. Yet, we are called by God to look up, but instead, we are often looking down.

We all find different ways of “looking up.” For me, the most effective way is to write. Why? Because that is my wiring. Your way of “looking up” will be different, perhaps more tactile and kinesthetic, or perhaps more auditory or visual. Maybe the scent of freshly cut grass, or the smell of a fresh rain on a hot day, or fragrance of flowers, will lift your mind from the busyness (or business) of life.

Our time here is short, and it is foolish to to live it by any other assumption. We are here to glorify God by being fully alive and available through the gifts and talents he has given each of us uniquely. We not only “look up” but we “sing out” or “dance out” or “write out” or “paint out” or “work out” in some way the bigger picture of God in our lives. St Irenaeus stated: “The glory of God is a man fully alive.”