Soaring
Those who hope in the Lord …
will soar on wings like eagles.
Isaiah 40:31
What is it like to soar? I sometimes dream I’m flying. I love watching birds arcing and circling, dancing in the sky. One of the most exhilarating experiences I’ve ever had was parascending. I couldn’t stop praising God. Deep inside, I know I was made to soar.
How does an eagle soar? Does it manically flap its wings? No, it simply catches a thermal. I mentioned this to someone who didn’t know what a thermal was and in case you have some crazy image of an eagle chasing a thermal vest, the kind of thermal that an eagle catches is an upward current of air. No frantic flapping, just resting and rising on the warm current.
When we put our hope in God, we will rise up and soar like an eagle on the current of His Spirit.
I have a dear friend going through some tough things and this verse has been in my prayers for her. Because you see, this soaring isn’t just for days when everything is hunky-dory. It doesn’t involve escaping reality. I am told that eagles deliberately fly into storms because that’s where they find the best thermals. Fly into a storm like an eagle and you will rise above the turbulence.
For us, this means intentionally choosing to hope in the hard places of life. I expect most of us have those places that tempt us to despair. Those are exactly the places where God calls us to hope. That doesn’t mean desperately squeezing the last drops of optimism out of our weary souls; in the Bible, this kind of hope is an expectant waiting. The original Hebrew is often translated as waiting on the Lord, deliberately looking to him, trusting that he looks back. It is the opposite stance of those who despair because they fear that their ways are hidden from God.
The Psalmist helps us to turn this into prayer,
I wait for the Lord - my whole being waits and in his word I put my hope…
Put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love. Psalm 130
Waiting takes time. I find it takes time to set my hope on God, to look beyond my grief and stress and pain to God’s unfailing love. It takes time to absorb his promises that he is always working for my good, even in the storms. But I don’t know anyone who soars above the storms who doesn’t set aside time to wait on God.
In a world frantically shouting at us to be frantic, a world where Satan tempts us to despair, where we too often lurch exhausted between rest points, manically flapping our tired wings, frightened of failing and falling, what a relief that God offers us another way of being – setting our hope in his unfailing love.
Those who hope in the Lord will soar!
