Lift Up Thine Eyes

Take a good look at the picture below.

Don’t just scan – really look. Notice.



That’s “Lift Up Thine Eyes” by Norman Rockwell, published in 1969. The title is an adapted quote from Psalm 121:1-2 – “I will lift up mine eyes to the hills; from whence shall come my help? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”

The title also appears on the little church sign at the front of the cathedral. This picture is a great example of the ironic spirit of a lot of Rockwell’s work, but this one is more serious than whimsical, or at least it seems so to me.

What did you notice about the picture? Which way were your eyes drawn? My guess is you first saw that horizontal line of people, then were drawn up into the opening of that great gothic arch, and finally followed that line of birds all the way up to the right corner of the painting. That my friends, is composition at work!

Did you notice the hunched and harried look of the passers-by? The spectacular tail-fin on that car? The apostles gathered in the alcoves?

My favorite thing about this picture is something that I DIDN’T notice till the third or fourth time I looked at it. The passers-by of course are not noticing the beauty around them, but they also are not noticing EACH OTHER. Most of them are looking at the next step they are about to take. The only people in the picture who are looking at each other are the minister and the man on the ladder, and the lady on her way down the steps, who at least has the potential to see the other people around her. We’ll come back to that.

This picture also reminds me of this song.

This was, according to the composer, Walt Disney’s favorite song. And it isn’t about birds. The line right before this song starts is “Some people can’t see past the end of their nose.” And again, not only is there a message about not noticing the beautiful cathedral, but about not noticing the people outside the cathedral, either. And how a very little bit can make a big difference to someone.

Now, a thought exercise. If you were to update Rockwell’s picture to the modern day, what would change? That great tailfin would be gone. The people’s clothes would different – all those great hats would disappear. And, as one of my youth astutely pointed out, there would be cell phones in all their hands and bluetooths in their ears. But would their posture be changed? Have all the technology and doo-dads that fill our lives really helped us notice one another, or are they just more sophisticated ways of NOT noticing what is actually around us?
And what would be unchanged, 40 years later? The face of the cathedral. Built to last, and with an enduring purpose – to remind people to lift up their eyes. Not just to scan, but to SEE, to NOTICE.

Richard Foster, in his classic “Celebration of Discipline,” lists “Study” as a discipline of the Christian life, and defines it like this: “Study is a specific kind of experience in which through careful attention to reality the mind is enabled to move in a certain direction.” He adds, “Remember, the mind will always take on an order conforming to the order upon which it concentrates.”

And this brings us back to the people in the picture, those who are not noticing each other and those who are. If we lift up our eyes and see, look at, and notice the things that endure, that inspire, that remind us of Another, we will then be in a better place to see, notice, and CARE about ONE ANOTHER – the people we don’t see when we are just looking at the next step in front of us.

There’s one more thing I love about this picture. The mighty counter-cultural weapon of the minister and his assistant is a black sign with those little white stick-on letters. In the shadow of a great gothic arch and surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses, they do the best they can with what they’ve got. And that’s ministry.