A beautiful view...

When I was planning my sabbatical travels, one thing I remembered was the road trip we took in the summer of 1992 along U.S. Highway 160, going from Winfield to in Liberal, Kansas. I was part of a Christian musical group that was based out of Southwestern College, and we were traveling there to play a show. I remember the scenery on that drive was absolutely beautiful.  I wanted to be sure to drive that memorable route again while I had the opportunity. And along the way I stopped to take these pictures which might give a decent example of what I'm talking about. (Please excuse the fact that I'm a terrible photographer)...

Out further west, near Elkhart, I stopped briefly in the Cimarron grasslands. These were lands that were badly damaged in the dust bowl years. They were reclaimed by the U.S. government and brought into a better state, and they are now preserved as one of several national grasslands. I drove up to a crest and was able to snap a shot of this view...

There's definitely more of a desert, New Mexican kind of feel in southwest Kansas. 

I also had some beautiful western views from the hotel room I had in Salt Lake City, right up towards the top floor. These were taken from the Salt Lake City Sheraton Hotel...

We had an even loftier view from our hotel in Dallas last week. We were given a room on the 23rd floor, just one below the very top level. It gave us this view of the surrounding downtown Dallas area...

The second picture made me think cynically of the line from the song "Synchronicity II" by the Police: "...packed like lemmings into shining metal boxes..." If there's one thing I can't stand about big cities it's the chaos of the traffic.

I made that comment on facebook but a friend (a local news reporter) commented in reply, "That view rocks." And it occurred to me: It's no fun to be down in it, but it's beautiful to look at it from above.

There's alot that can be drawn from that simple observation, because life is like that so often. If we could learn to see our lives from God's perspective, maybe we would understand the beauty more and be less concerned with the messy details. 

If we could see other people as God sees them, maybe we'd be less frustrated by their faults and more appreciative of the beautiful things about them. 

It's good for us to see the messy seasons of our lives through the lens of God's deliverance. The cross looks much different in the hindsight of the resurrection. So often in life, what we need is a better view -- a view from above.