Lock Your Wings

I read in some long ago book this illustration and have never forgotten it. Eagles, in flight over the Sinai Desert, will ride the hot thermal winds up over a large storm front. They can go as high as 10,000 feet. He doesn't fly that high by flapping his wings. He locks his wings at his shoulders, to ride the wind over the storm, coming down on the other side. He can stay aloft for hours. He will get so high that ice will start to form on his wings, melting as he descends.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word "ruach" means spirit or wind, the breath of God. David used it in one of my favorite verses, Psalm 51:10-11, "Create in me a clean heart, O God..........take not your ruach from me". The New Testament Greek for Holy Spirit is "pneuma", wind, to lift up.

When Isaiah says in 40:31 "we should soar with wings as eagles", this is what he means. He used this illustration as he talked about the tired and weary relying on the strength of God. Not to flap and struggle against the storms of life...illness, family responsibilities, failed relationships or financial problems...but to lock our wings, and ride the breath of God. That doesn't mean we have don't have to deal with these things; we do. It's not about relying on God to take us over these things, but to give us a new perspective- a view from above the storm.

We need to get ice on our wings.