It’s Good to Fly Sometimes

SCRIPTURE Isaiah 6:3 NIV Holy, holy, Holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.

THOUGHT I wrote a book this time last year. It’s called “Walking When You’d Rather Fly,” and it contrasts my fumbling, stumbling journey through life with the notion that flying sure seems easier. (Check it out at www.walkingwhenyoudratherfly.com if you want to learn more.) Last Friday, I did the unthinkable in a covid-19 world and flew. 

With about 100 other souls, I sailed from Austin to Cincinnati in two sweet hours. I watched the sunset off one side and full moon rise off the other and thought about perspective. On the ground it was cloudy, but we rose above that to blue skies, then orange skies, then white moonlight on mountains and deserts and seascapes of clouds below. Earth, for awhile, was akin to marshmallow cream. 

I like marshmallow cream. I’d much rather feel that life is sweet, moving along at 700 mph on a moonbeam, missing all the obstacles, the hard, uphill climbs and the encumbrances of earth-bound life — but it is not to be until that day when gravity no longer has a grip on me.

For now, it’s just good to remember that we serve a God who sees this perspective, and higher still, every moment of our lives. The whole earth is full of his glory.

For me, flying is a metaphor for forgetting difficulty. For the Lord of the Universe, such elevated perspective is about remembering… everything, for all eternity. To know the end from the beginning. To be the end and the beginning. To soar and swell and fill the universe with glory, yet care to walk with those of us whose wings have not yet grown.

PRAYER Oh God of the Universe, you fill the earth with glory, every corner and crevice flooded with light. And yet you walk with me, fill me, and shepherd my life on this earthbound journey. Thank you for your bigness which inspires and your smallness which keeps me company.