Many years ago there lay, in a large pleasant room of a fine old residence, a young woman suffering from serious spinal trouble. It had resulted from a fall upon the ice while she was skating. The invalid was the only daughter of a proud, ambitious, haughty man, many of whose ways she had inherited. She had been envied for her beauty, her wealth, and her position, and now here she lay, helpless and hopeless.
The surgeons had said after their examination, when she insisted upon knowing the truth as to their findings: "You may live for years, but you will be an invalid and a great sufferer as long as you live.”
Now the burden of her cry was: "I am doomed to lie here, doomed to lie here!”
"Doomed to lie and look up!" responded a timid voice one day. Turning her eyes, the sufferer saw a woman from a cottage near the village, who was moving about wiping the furniture in her room, and who, as she turned to leave, ventured to emphasize her words by a pleasant glance and a smile of sympathy.
"What can she mean by that?" the invalid thought, too surprised at the woman's presumption to be angry. "If it is meant for preaching, I will have none of it!”
The thought remained with her. She could not see the floor nor the ground anywhere, but her windows Looked out into a large tree. Because her eyes must rest on something, they learned to focus on the view beyond the window. She soon became familiar with the birds who made the tree their home. She noted the shadows cast by the sunlight, and the drip, drip of the rain. She gazed up at the clouds and marveled at the surpassing beauty of dawn, the glory of the sunsets, and watched the first star that smiled at her with its friendly beams.
Those who took care of her also noticed a change, and they were surprised and pleased that, though she did not suffer less, she ceased complaining so much. Her mind seemed to have a new and enjoyable occupation.
When the cleaning woman came next, with her gentle step and her dust cloths, the girl said: "Tell me something more about looking up.”
Promptly the woman replied: "It is a wonderful thing to look up― to see a glorified Savior on the throne of God. But better yet it is to know Him and trust Him.”
"How did you learn all this?" asked the invalid. `You seem to be so busy.”
"Work is a blessing," replied the woman, "for when my hands are occupied with cleaning, my mind is free to be occupied with Him whose blood has cleansed me from all sin.”
Then this humble housemaid told her mistress the precious gospel of God's grace to man in giving His Son to die for our sins. She explained the mighty work He did for us on Calvary, a work none other could do, and she lovingly urged upon her the peace and joy of simple belief in the Savior. Gratefully the invalid received Him into her heart and was saved.
"And now," said the maid, "I want to tell you a wonderful thing that once happened to me. I was doing housework for a lady. One day I was dusting the outside shutters, and she called to me to take care of the baby who was sleeping in a cradle under the trees. Then in the kind and gracious way she always had toward everybody, she suggested: 'Lie in the hammock a while and look up! That is what I like to do when I am tired; I look up to God―I look up and love and trust Him.'
"And that is just what I did for nearly half an hour. Just as she told me, I looked up; and I keep looking up.
"When the lady came back she said, 'Thank you! I hope you have seen that although each of us are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior many have different duties here, the life above is for us all in equal measure.'
"Well, I went back to my work a different woman.”
Then she said a surprising thing to the invalid: "You were that baby, ma'am, and the gentle lady was your mother. She lived less than a year after that morning.
From that time on the young lady lay and looked up. Her whole life and conduct showed forth the love of Christ, and through her faith in Him she was able to rise above her afflictions and became a true witness for Christ.
"Jesus Christ: whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 1 Peter 1:7, 87That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: (1 Peter 1:7‑8).