Wings like Eagles

Last weekend we managed to steal a few precious days away from work and travel up into the Yorkshire Dales for some much needed rest and relaxation with the family. Despite the weather being glorious we actually struggled with snow quite a lot. The road to the cottage where we were staying was blocked with as yet unthawed snow drifts, meaning that we had to walk the final 500 metres down a steep hill with all our luggage (and 500 metres up a steep hill with all our luggage on the way home). Even youths grow weary…

The holiday afforded me the opportunity to give a maiden flight to my new aeroplane I’ve been building since Christmas. I had a great time watching it glide over the Dales for a few seconds as the rubber band powered propeller unwound itself, before the inevitable crash landing and inspection of damage sustained during the impact. Whilst slowly breaking my beloved aeroplane I couldn’t help but think of these wonderful verses from Isaiah 40:

²⁸ Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

I don’t know about you, but if I’m being honest those verses don’t describe the default setting of my Christian spirituality. Despite God’s promises that he will give strength to the weary and power to the weak, there are plenty of times when I do feel weary and weak. Like my aeroplane, there can be moments when I’m up there with the eagles, but never for long. The propeller stops turning and I begin my undignified descent. Why is it that the victories of Carmel are always followed by a flight to Horeb?

Sometimes the promises we read in the Bible just don’t tally up with our day to day experience of life. When that is the case we can often assume that the fault lies with God, rather than ourselves. I think these verses from Isaiah offer a solution. Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. All too often our hope is in our own finite, limited, depleting resources and we ignore the fact that God has already given us every spiritual blessing in Christ and his finished work. If that is the case, is there any wonder that every now and then we just run out of steam and begin to lose altitude rapidly?