Today’s readings: Click on today’s date at http://www.usccb.org/bible/
Wings like eagles
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Second Week of Advent
Isaiah 40:28-31
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the eternal God, creator of the ends of the earth. Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, they will mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not be weary, they will walk and not faint.
Teach me Lord, teach me Lord to wait.
This is the most actively passive thing I will ever do. I can learn to DO “doing nothing.” Alert, sitting up straight, eyes open and waiting. No doubt there will be walking, and running, and flying … in the fullness of time. When the time comes. Not always now. So I wait.
An eagle soars with ease, barely moving her wings. Her eyes are huge and incredibly efficient. In fact, she can see clearly both forward and to the side at the same time. Gliding a thousand feet above, an eagle sees a rabbit over an area of three square miles.
Simple, unpretentious strength de-clutters the eagle’s landscape and her life. The decision to wait the right moment to dive comes easily to her. She need not struggle against her own “knowledge” – she has nothing to prove to herself or anyone else.
A few chapters earlier in Isaiah, God aches and pleads for his people to stop their running without strength or trust in Him. “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it … until you are left like a flagstaff on a mountain, like a banner on a hill. Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. Blessed are all who wait for him” (Isaiah 30:15-18)!
We are given this short time now, as winter closes in, to settle and accept and rest a bit in the arms of God. Lie down and sleep, dwell in safety. Awaken alert and alive with anticipation for what is coming next. Rest and rejuvenate, watch and pray.
God is with us, every one. We can do both well.
You bless me, Lord, all my soul, and all that is within me. Bless your holy name. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, baby Jesus. Come.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1207
