This thought has been brewing in my head a long time, but today C.S.Lewis, one of my heroes, said it out loud for me: “of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you” (Mere Christianity).

A few months ago, I started getting horrible bouts of vertigo.  Every time I lifted my head, and then brought it down again, it took several dizzying seconds before my mind followed my body.  Reporting this to the MS nurse, she said, helpfully, ‘just don’t look up’.  So now, if I remember, when I’ve to put something on a high shelf, or hang something up, I keep my eyes down, and blindly reach.  Just believe that there’s a plane in the sky as your children tell you, but don’t look to check.  Just listen to the birds swooping and circling, and use your imagination.  This, I suggest, is a life half-lived.  Look up, face the world spinning for a moment, but be glad you did it.  Better advice.  What’s the worst that can happen, really?

I do hate the sick weirdness though.  However wise C.S.Lewis was, I think there’s something else to be seen down here.  Into the dark, and the muck of ground-living, Jesus, Light of the World, came.  And, by His Spirit, He’s still here.  So ok, if I can’t look up, I can look around me, and there’s plenty of wonder in that too.