A God's Eye View

I can't remember a time when I wasn't enamoured with flying.  I guess it started with some childhood books that featured a character that flew a small plane.   Whatever the reason, I have been fascinated with flying ever since.  As a child I begged for flying lessons like other children begged for ponies and bicycles.  I talked of it all the time and evidently drove my parents crazy with my babbling.  I remember one day, my mother had reached the limit with my incessant begging.  "OK", she announced with her hands on her hips, "If you are very, very good...", my heart gave a mighty leap, "someday you'll get to heaven and God will give you wings!  Until then hush up about it!"  I knew it was time to "hush up".

My flying never got past flying in commercial airliners, but my fascination continues. 

I love the feeling of leaving the solid ground and becoming airborne.  I can't get over the amazement that something the size of a jumbo jet, filled with people (and all that luggage!) can smoothly and gracefully take to the air.  No amount of scientific explanation works--to me it's just magic!  I have no fears, or terrors, just anticipation and delight as I watch the land that I just stood on shrink and become a part of a mosaic picture spread before my eyes.  I search out landmarks as I gaze, enraptured, by the different perspective of buildings, roads, cars, trees, fields, and rivers flowing underneath me.

As we get higher, I am able to see the vastness of our land and how it varies from region to region.  Close to home I see the valleys and tree filled hillsides with meandering streams flowing through.  The little roads wind and ramble along the topography with smaller paths leading off to farms and houses tucked into secluded spots.  The thousands of little ponds wink and flash in the sunlight.  I look at the fields, like little squares in a quilt, outlined in trees and dark green, stitching it all together.

As I travel west, the land smooths out and doesn't look so much like a quilt that is rumbled and bunched.  Now it is smooth and flat.  The fields become bigger and show the straight rows of plowing or last season's crops.  Occasional green clumps show the places where  trees have been planted for shade and wind breaks.  Nestled in these clumps are homes and farm buildings.  As you go further west you begin to see great round circles on the land, where farmers have irrigated the dry land into verdant, flourishing fields.  Everywhere it looks bountiful, manicured, and carefully tended. 

I think only from the sky can you begin to appreciate the strength of the farmers and the land that they love.  When you see the careful tending of the land, from the little patches of fields to the great spread of the plains farms, you have an understanding of the work, effort, dedication, and determination that farmers have used to bring forth the crops and produce from this great land.  They have created a work of art for God's own eyes.

The next time you fly, look out the window and appreciate the farmers who cultivate the beauty and bounty spread out below you.