Inside, Outside, Upside Down

 May 10, 2021

Today’s gratitude prompt is “a gift outside, inside, and upside down.” Suggestions like this require me to look at life a bit differently in order to see what I would otherwise miss. I read this prompt while waiting outside the eye doctor’s office for my appointment. In our COVID obsessed world, we can no longer sit inside the waiting room, so rather than sit in my truck, I stood in the parking lot watching the little kids across the street making their way to school. The air was cool, but the sunshine bright on a near-cloudless morning, and I realize how blessed I am to live where there is plenty of green grass, trees, and fresh air. Far too many people don’t have the pleasure of breathing deeply and seeing beauty all around them. 

Standing outside in her driveway talking with a cousin this afternoon, we observed how economically depressed our area is, but noted that even so, it is home, and we are grateful to be living where we do. We are not lacking in challenges, but we both are still on our feet, doing our best to live responsibly. She and her brother care for their aged and bedridden mother, living out every day Jesus’ command to love one another and to honor our parents.

The inside blessing was easy. I sat in the doctor’s office, surrounded by equipment designed to help me see better. Some years ago, my friend Joel took an entire set of ophthalmological equipment to Cuba to give to the people there. Here in the States, this equipment was outdated, superseded by the more advanced tools common in optometrist’s offices today. It isn’t only the technology, but the surroundings themselves that are a blessing. The offices were bright and well-kept; I’ve seen what passes for medical offices in other parts of the world—dingy, ill-supplied, with outdated and broken equipment. I’m not sure how much can be done to improve my eyesight; I am nearly 72, but at least I know I’m getting as good a care as is possible.

Upside down is a bit more tricky. Linda often laughs at the birds eating upside down on the suet feeders outside our window, but I am thinking more about the Gospel message that turns life upside-down. We naturally imagine that power and control will win the day, that might makes right, or if not, it at least beats weakness. I’ve been reading the beatitudes of Matthew 5 once more, and in them and in his entire Sermon on the Mount, Jesus turns on its head our understanding of how life works. Humility, mourning, mercy, and being persecuted are not usually at the top of our list of blessings in this life, but in his topsy-turvy way, Jesus switches things around, bringing blessings out of buffetings, and turning disgrace into grace. For this I am particularly thankful tonight.