Article August 20, 2007 Issue

The benefits of looking up

BY MEG WELCH DENDLER

It was a blue-sky Texas day, late in May. I paused by a shimmering lake with my dog, Max, to bask in the moment. The summer heat hadn't settled in yet, the breeze was peaceful, and there wasn't a cloud to be seen. I thought, "How could anything be wrong, anywhere in the world, on such a beautiful day?"

My morning walks with Max are a time for me to reflect, pray, and think about God's presence. That morning, the presence of God, divine Love, felt so palpable and clear to me. It genuinely seemed impossible that anything evil had a chance to thrive or even exist. The kingdom of heaven felt close and tangible, and it seemed that I was being given a glimpse of it through the glory of that spring morning.

As I look back on that moment, having walked around that lake several times since, an interesting spiritual insight comes to my thought. The area of our neighborhood where the lake is located is under heavy construction with 20 or more homes in various stages of completion. It is often noisy, and the lake is consistently filled with litter from workers' lunches and debris from construction sites—things such as plastic cups, Styrofoam containers, and stray sheets of dry wall.

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