Wings of Eagles

 Spring is—finally—here.  We toss aside our jackets, put away our sweaters and head out to enjoy the sunshine.  Like most people, I love to see the grass become green again, flowers bloom, and trees come back to life.  But what I most enjoy about spring is the return of migrating birds and the resurgence of activity at our feeders and bird houses.

 

As I watch the birds do their Spring thing, I often admire their ability to fly.  I think how lucky they are that the Lord gave them the ability to fly, and I wish the Lord had created us humans with wings….  But as I have thought about this, I have come to recognize that the gift of flight comes with a stiff price: flight is hard work, and in order to facilitate flight, the body of birds is light and quite frail.  

 

While gliding on air currents requires little energy, take-off and wing-flapping are high calorie endeavors.  While there is a great variation in energy expenditure among different species of birds and in different activities involved in flight, estimates for general flight can be as high as 10,000 calories/day.  Along with flight comes the need for a continual search for food and rest.  Flight also involves risk.  Hollow bones and light bodies make flight possible but also make broken wings and crushed bodies a common occurrence.

 

It seems to me that the ability of birds to fly presents a wonderful parable for us as some of God’s wingless creatures.  Whatever gifts and abilities the Lord has given us requires continual, focused, and prolonged effort on our part if we are to use those gifts and abilities as He intends and to experience His deep and genuine joy in doing so.  There is risk involved as well: our sin-sick bodies are arguably as frail as those of birds.  But most of all, it requires trust and dependence on the Lord for His protection as He guards and guides us with His staff.  But it is worth it beyond measure!  

 

Please consider with me Isaiah’s proclamation about spiritual flight:

            Yet those who wait for the LORD

            Will gain new strength;

            They will mount up with wings like eagles,

            They will run and not get tired,

            They will walk and not become weary.

 

In his Gospel, John records these words of Jesus: I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.  C.S. Lewis observed that contrary to what we might think, the Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak.  May we learn to depend upon Him more and more as we deeply desire and energetically pursue the spiritual flight that He would have for us.