As a new year prepares to dawn, keep looking up

This columnist never has enjoyed a good sense of direction. East and west as signposts, for example, have little meaning for me.

During this Christmas season, with so many vehicles seen again at shopping centers during this vaccinated era, remembering where the car is parked is always an adventure.

Ergo, getting lost is lamentably easy.

Because of this lifelong memory and perception deficit, the chosen solution is to park in the extreme corner of surface lots.

It is frustrating, however, always to be so confused emerging from a Walmart or a grocery store or even a restaurant.

That's why I tend to look for direction wherever it can be found -- not only in terms of geography but in terms of my own spirit.

On the digital hospital sign found along William Street in Cape Girardeau, a new baby was welcomed into the world accompanied by a biblical verse -- a text giving me a sense of direction.

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." (Psalm 139:14/New International Version)

This psalm is believed to have been penned by David, the greatest king of the brief united monarchy of Israel -- who lived 10 centuries before Christ.

To acknowledge being "wonderfully made," is to recognize the beauty of the Creator's work.

David's words are laudatory toward God but notice -- the ancient monarch makes no claim of being personally wonderful.

He is not, in other words, giving himself credit.

Yes, David had many gifts: musical ability, bravery, charisma, an active prayer life.

Like all of us, though, mixed in with the positive are David's shortfalls.

A cursory reading of the Old Testament reveals the king to be a braggart, a womanizer and the very instigator of a murder conspiracy.

Read Psalm 51, another psalm ascribed to David, and you'll see the king's willing ownership of his personal faults.

As the season lurches toward conclusion in the coming week, I am aware of my many shortcomings and deficits.

Also, there is awareness of some positive characteristics.

Psalm 139 reminds me to get out of my own head and to keep looking up.

Keep looking up in the year to come at the One who made me "fearfully and wonderfully."

Keep looking up in 2022 and inviting God to continue to shape what the late Canadian comedian Norm MacDonald once called "this old chunk of coal."

This writer may not know much but he knows where to look -- and that's up.