I was a child (perhaps six or seven) when my parents took us to Pearisburg High School because something exciting was happening. A helicopter was going to land and the TV cowboy “The Cisco Kid” was going to be on it. A whirlybird landing in town during the mid-1950s was a big deal, and the Cisco Kid was right up there with Roy Rogers. We waited a long time until someone came to the car with an autographed picture of the cowboy along with an apology because he wouldn’t be there. My consolation prize was a trip to “The Tastee-Freeze” for an ice cream cone.

I remember looking up for a long time while waiting for what did not happen. That is not the case with our Lord. Christians are a “looking up” people, and we know that it is not in vain. We look up because every good and perfect gift comes from above. Looking up was Jesus’ posture of prayer.

I look up because my help comes from the Lord, and a “chin up” is the profile of hope. The Bible instructs us to look up because our redemption is drawing close and there is nothing on this earth to hold us back. Christians look up because Christ ascended into Heaven, and He is coming again from Heaven.

There is a prize up above, and it is not a consolation prize, but the reward of all who never stop believing. I was serving as a volunteer chaplain at an assisted living home. We held Bible Study each week. There was a saint who usually walked with me to the door that opened east. She never failed to look up at the sky and say, “Brother Amos, I keep looking for the Lord to return on one of those clouds.”

“Keep looking up, keep looking up,
With Faith’s aspiring eye;
The promise is that help will come
From Him who dwells on high.”