Rising up on wings as eagles

Rising up on wings as eagles

I pray that today will be a day of faith and expectation for you as you wait upon our Lord Jesus Christ to meet with you.

Chapter 40 of the book of Isaiah is a song of Isaiah and speaks particularly about Comforting the people of God.  Let us consider, in particular the well-known passage from verse 28 to verse 31:

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (ESV)

The image for today is of course, that of rising, or soaring, on wings like eagles.  I am an amateur bird watcher, but I have come to look upon an eagle with an awe that is very different to any of the other birds that capture my imagination.  My very favourite eagle is the Martial eagle.  There is a power and majesty in this bird that demands respect and takes your breath away and commands quiet, almost hypnotic, admiration should it land anywhere near you or your vehicle.

If one considers the flight of these birds, then the picture that Isaiah is drawing here for us is very special indeed.  There is so much that could be shared about these phenomenal birds, but I would like to concentrate mainly on the simile presented to us in the passage quoted.

It is very clear that God knows of the weariness that will overcome us during times of trial and/or stress.  None of us is exempt from being tired and stressed.  He says that even young people will get tired.  However, HE will not grow tired or weary and His advice to us is to WAIT or to HOPE in Him and then we will rise up and soar.

I thank God that He never gets tired nor weary, because if I consider the number of meltdowns I have had in my lifetime, I would be a lost cause indeed.

Let me unpack this image a little now, from my perspective. Before an eagle can fly, it is, as a hatchling, completely dependent upon its parents.  The nest is so high up that it could not even dream to step out to stretch its legs.  It may stretch its wings and wonder what they are, of course, but it will not find out until it is about 12 weeks old.  When we encounter God and His saving grace, he allows us time to savour His provision.  He will encourage us to test our wings and stretch them, but he will not encourage us to fly until such time as we are ready.  We need to wait on Him in faith and expectation for what purpose he will lay before us.

When the parents see that the fledgling is now ready to fend for himself, the mother will allow the youngster to climb on her back and she’ll take him for his first tandem free fall.  Once she is at a suitable altitude, she drops out from under him.  His reaction is to flap those wings frantically.  She will swoop in under him again to catch him during this exercise of self-discovery.  This process will be repeated again and again, until such time as the art of using those appendages kicks in. If the youngster is particularly fearful and comfortable staying in the nest, the “dastardly” parents tear the nest apart, forcing the youngster to let go of its “security blanket” and to do that for which it is now ready.  There are times in life when we get stuck in a groove, where life is very comfortable and we are reluctant to move on.  Many times, this reluctance causes our ears to be plugged and the only way Father God can reach us, is to pull our nest apart.  We tend to stand back, aghast at what is happening to our lives, but if we should stand back and wait with faith and expectation, then we will learn to fly very quickly and experience our purpose with courage and confidence, determination and grace.  We can be confident too, that we will not be abandoned to land with a face-plant on terra firma, but that God will be there to swoop in under us until such time as we learn to use our wings.

An eagle is never afraid of a storm.  In fact, the eagle uses the storm to its advantage, circling and gliding its currents to gain the altitude needed to find its prey.  At that altitude of up to 3000 meters, the eagle is sure not to encounter and be bothered by any other birds. All it needs to do is to lock its wings into a fixed position (which no other bird is able to do) and very little energy is now expended on flying – the eagle can focus entirely on the task of finding its food.  Possibly the most awesome thing of all, is that the eagle can see prey from a distance of up to 5 kilometers.  The eagle does not get to that altitude without effort though – it has to use its powerful legs to launch itself into flight and it has to flap those almighty powerful wings until it finds a wind current to swoop it upwards.  Then it simply stretches out its wings, locks them in place and soars on the currents.

And this is how our faith will work to our advantage.  When we are weary and stressed, tired of what life is dishing up on our plate, all we need to do is wait in anticipation and expectation.  God will not disappoint us.  He will give us the strength to launch ourselves upward, He will provide the wind currents in which we can circle and glide – all we need to do is to let go and let God….  Let go of our anxieties, let go of our insecurities, let go of our guilt, let go of our desires, let go of our impurities, let go of our pride, let go of our fears – spread our wings, lock them into God’s grace and love for us and we will soar at altitudes we would never have dreamed of, way above the trials and difficulties of life.  We will be able to run in obedience to His commands and we will never faint in unbelief or from trying to do things in our own strength.  We will remain positive, calm and confident regardless of what may come our way.

We will see our enemies, we will see our direction and purpose, we will discern dangers and pitfalls and we will not waste energy on unnecessary activity and/or diversions, because we will be so focused from the height at which we are flying, that nothing will faze us in our faith, walk and service to our Lord Jesus Christ.