Flight Lessons

 

Scripture

Deuteronomy 32:9-13

⁹ the Lord’s own portion was his people,
    Jacob his allotted share. ¹⁰ He sustained him in a desert land,
    in a howling wilderness waste;
he shielded him, cared for him,
    guarded him as the apple of his eye.
¹¹ As an eagle stirs up its nest
    and hovers over its young,
as it spreads its wings, takes them up,
    and bears them aloft on its pinions,
¹² the Lord alone guided him;
    no foreign god was with him.
¹³ He set him atop the heights of the land
    and fed him with produce of the field;   (NRSVUE)

 

Devotion

During our weekend-long family reunion, my cousins and I were treated to the sight of robin convincing her two fledglings that it was time to leave the nest that she had built under the eaves of the kitchen house. When we first arrived, the robin was busily engaged in flying worms up to her hungry young.  The next morning, she began stirring up the nest with her talons; the fledglings showed they were not amused by cheeping at her as they tried to hunker down.    By noon, she was positioned on the ground below the nest, holding a fat worm in her beak.  As the fledglings stared at her and began nervously fluttering their wings, she chirped for them to come down for lunch.The fledglings were reticent to take the plunge, but their mother was persistent.  

The young left the nest one at a time.  After each one landed, their mother kept chirping at it to follow her as she fluttered about from the ground to low objects, caught worms, etc.    One chirp of encouragement--one short flight--one worm at a time, the robin taught her young how to live out in the big, wide world.  One fledgling caught on quickly and was gone almost as soon as we realized what was happening.  The other was more cautious and a bit of a slow learner.  We watched it learn from its mother for a few hours.  By evening, both fledglings had flown off to meet their futures.

Watching the robin teach convince her young to leave the nest and then teach them how to fly reminds me of God's word in Deuteronomy 32.  There, God's care for us is demonstrated in the way God cared for Jacob in the wilderness.  Like an adult eagle taking care of its young, God fed and protected a young Jacob in the wilderness when he ran away from home after stealing his brother's birthright.  God brought him to safe space in a foreign land where he spent years working, creating a family, and learning some hard lessons about trust, loyalty, etc.  

After Jacob had grown enough in faith, maturity, and understanding, God "stirred up the nest" by letting him know that it was time for him to get out there and begin establishing a nation.  Still, God did not simply send Jacob out to sink or swim on his own.  Instead, God hovered over Jacob, providing him blessings as God taught Jacob everything he needed to know in order to begin fulfilling God's promises to Abraham.  And God remained with Jacob and his descendants forevermore--bearing them up on God's wings as they learned how to fly.  As each new generation of the faithful how to live in God's love and follow God's ways throughout a continually changing world, they didn't just fly.  They soared.  And God takes us through the same process today.

Like fledglings, people of faith have often been reticent about leaving the security of what we know.  We're worried about what will happen to us if we flutter down from our nests in order to try new things as we try to figure out where God wants us to go or what Jesus is calling us to do.  Even when we do respond to God's persistent call, some of us are slower learners than others. And most of us tend to be more than a little ungainly at first.  But when we trust in God's guidance--whatever it is leading us--we will lean to fly into whatever future God has in store for us.  And unlike the mother bird, who moved on with her life after her job was done, God will always wing his way back to us whenever we call out for help.

And so I ask: what nests might the Holy Spirit be encouraging us to leave?  What new things may Christ be calling us to flutter towards?  And what do we need God to teach us about or encourage us in so that we can learn how to soar? 

Prayer

 God, I know your plans for me are good.  Protect me and teach me how to fly as I follow your Word.  Amen.