The high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
-John Gillespie Magee, Jr., WWII Royal Canadian Air Force Pilot
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.
-Isaiah 40:31
For those of you who can remember when television didn't broadcast 24/7, you may remember a sign off from the 1960's. It featured a single jet airplane, soaring through the sky, with majestic music in the background to a reading by William Conrad of the poem "High Flight". It was written by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. in a letter home to his parents in 1941, just months before a tragic mid-air collision took his life. Whenever I could stay up late enough to watch it, it always touched me somehow. It suggested that we could go beyond the cares of earth, and rise to something greater, to be something greater. The full version can be seen on YouTube. I would suggest you check it out.
But then there is an old saying "How can I soar with the eagles when I'm stuck down here with the turkeys?" (And we all know turkey's can't fly - WKRP in Cincinnati taught us that if nothing else!) It's so easy to get lost in the circumstances around us, that we forget our souls have wings that were meant to fly. The only way to counter that is to not look at, but BEYOND our circumstances. If life truly is a journey, then the only time we get stuck is when we fail to move. And we fail to move when our vision is no longer on our goal, which is Christ. We may each have a different path, because we are each individuals, but the end of each journey is still Jesus. So, I challenge you (and me) to change our focus from around us to ahead of us. From under the circumstances to beyond them. From our own hopelessness to the author of hope. Then, we can fly. Then we can put out our hand, and touch the face of God.
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