Pinions of an Eagle

 True confession : sometimes I test God.

Like the other day, I needed some encouragement and I told God as much. Sitting at the breakfast table, I told God I was going to flip open my bible and would He please let it land somewhere that would give me a whisper of comfort.

It landed in Deuteronomy 32.

Really God? Deuteronomy?

That’s when God took out the 2x4 and smacked me across the head. Hard.

Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,

That hovers over its young,

He spread His wings and caught them,

He carried them on His pinions.

Deuteronomy 32:11

When an eagle wants to teach it’s young to fly, it pushes them out of the nest. The eaglet learns what her wings are for. If the eaglet comes in danger of not spreading her wings soon enough, the parent eagle will swoop down and carry them in its pinions back to the nest.

Dare I admit the tears that welled up in my eyes friends?

But God, I’m comfortable in the nest.

Push.

But God, I’m warm in the nest.

Push.

But God, it’s safe here and I’m fed.

Push.

In our today, there is no mistake we have all been pushed out of the nest.

The gut-wrenching feeling of free falling is followed closely with confusion.

God, why?

His pinions grab and we are returned to the comfort of the nest.

Until the next push.

It is in the free fall Beloved that we learn the strength of our wings.

It is in God’s faithfulness in which we are taken back to the place of rest.

The eaglet would never know the power of flight, if it wasn’t for the push.

The eaglet would never know it was meant for great heights while in the comfort of the nest.

The eaglet would never know its magnificence in which it had been created.

Friends, maybe today you feel the free fall.

Maybe you long to feel the comfort of the nest.

Maybe you cry out for the safety of His pinons.

Stretch your wings.

Know we have been created for magnificence.

And His pinions are always near.

IN THE QUIET : The King

The enraged king made the decree.  Murder all the baby boys 2 and under.
A piece of the Christmas story no one talks about.

My mind is unable to move past it.  Such immense evil seems out of place among the greatest story ever told.  I'm hard pressed to recall a sermon ever given on this piece of the story.  The story of Christmas is about joy and Good News and Peace among men.

Not murderous evil.
But here it is.

Woven in this story is evil and pain and mourning; why God?

"Evil is unreasonable; therefore needs no reason."  The words spoken from my instructor in a training class not long ago.

I mull on that while thinking of the weeping cries from broken mothers rising above the Christmas story.
The weeping cries of that first Christmas...and today.

This year Christmas brings sadness, anxiety and tears for many; dare I say most.
Christmas will look different than any other before. 
Changed or cancelled traditions.
Empty tables.
Empty chairs.
Empty cupboards. 
Even loved ones nearby may experience Christmas alone.  
My heart is heavy for those; the ones I know the darkness of night holds cries in silence.

Friend, it is in the Silent Night the glory of God shown all around them.
Your sadness is as much a part of the Christmas story as the joy it heralds.
The King in the manger holds the Peace that passes over any thing a king decrees.

He is your Joy in the tears.
He is your swaddled Hope.
He is your Peace in the night.

So let your tears fall.
For The King will once again come down.
The King of kings.
The Lord of lords.
He, Beloved, He is the One who will once again come down.

And wipe each tear away.

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Matthew 2: 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

 

Drawers & Memories

While cleaning out my dresser, I broke my nail.    Deciding I would need the nail clippers in my nightstand, I walked over and opened the drawer. 

There it was staring at me.  My youngest son's binky.

It caught me off guard.

My youngest is 19 now.  The binky is old and well past it's prime.
Yet, all these years, I could never throw it out.

I remember the day he gave it up.  He had made the decision he was a big boy and didn't need it.

I wasn't so sure.

He loved his binky and I envisioned long sleepless nights without it; for him and for me.
I placed it in my nightstand drawer just in case.

The just-in-case never came.
Despite changing nightstands a couple of times since then, I was the one who couldn't part with it.

Funny how that works.

So tonight I sit here, a little melancholy for days gone by tucked safely in the past.
Tiny fingers have given way to man size hugs.
Strapping in car seats have given way to surprise visits at work.
Bedtime stories replaced with texts and phone calls.
The "I love you" is the same; only the voice has changed.

While it's easy to get lost in the memories of yesterday, it's a gentle reminder how much parenting evolves in every one of life's seasons.  

The season of this year looks different for all of us.
But you know what?
Some day in our tomorrows, this will be our yesterday.

And My hope tonight is simple.  May this season in this year bring warm smiles from yesterdays that light into your tomorrows.

The tomorrows wait for us.
Just like old binkies in nightstand drawers.