After painting the Sistine ceiling, Michelangelo found that the habit of looking upward, which that long-continued work rendered necessary, made it for some time impossible to read or to look carefully at a drawing, except in the same attitude. He had looked up so much, it was difficult for him to look down.
The opposite is too often sadly true of us; we look down so much that it is a great task to look up. After much looking up, Michelangelo found it easier than looking down. Why do we not acquire the habit of looking up and lifting up our heads? The darkness of gloomy hearts is easiest emptied by beholding, like Stephen, our Lord in the glory for us.