Encouragement and FaithPurpose and Faith

I am so excited. And that doesn’t happen often. Yesterday I got this photo of a male, Vermillion Flycatcher in flight. The new camera Phyllis bought me is amazing.

Just before the sun dropped behind the small mountain that shades our home, Phyllis grabbed her binoculars, I strapped on my camera, we jumped in our golf cart, and headed out into the hills. We drove straight to a patch of oak trees near a pond where a few families of Vermillion Flycatchers live.

I’ve never been good at locating the tiny little creatures. But Phyllis has eagle eyes. So she’s in charge of spotting them and pointing them out to me. Sure enough, within minutes, she pointed up above me. I looked, pointed my camera and was able to get a lucky photo of that gorgeous ball-of-fire flying right past my head.

I wish I could fly free as a bird like that. Don’t you?

We humans have been wishing and trying to soar like birds for thousands of years. King David wanted to fly. 2,700 years ago he was so tired of his enemies and personal problems he wrote, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. Psalm 55:6

Even the ancient Greeks made up characters like Icarus and his father Daedalus, who attempted to fly away from their difficulties by making themselves wings from bird feathers, strings and wax. By the way, it didn’t work.

Leonardo da Vinci, the brilliant artist and mathematician, drew plans for a mechanical winged machine known as an ornithopter. His ingenious gadget didn’t work either.

We still long to fly like birds, not inside an aluminum bus with wings, propelled by jet engines, and accompanied by three-hundred strangers. No, what we want is to leap into the sky and glide effortlessly through the air like one of our feathered friends. That deep, inner, human longing to take to the air may be the source of the popular idiom, “free as a bird.”

The Bible is basically a series of stories about our Creator-Savior God, who loves His children and seeks to set them free. The Bible word “salvation” literally means to be “set free.” It’s a picture-word. Imagine a bird with its wings tied to its body. The bird is alive but it can’t fly. It can’t do or be what it was designed to do and be. It needs a savior, someone who will cut it lose.

It’s easy for us to slowly, subtly, and subconsciously get all wrapped up by unhealthy habits. Then one day we wake up and realize we are that little bird with our wings tied down. We want to be free to reach our dreams but we don’t know how.

Maybe this is the time in your life when you are ready to make a change. You’re ready to get cut lose from something that has tied you up or held you down for years.

The Bible says, “The truth will set you free.” And Jesus said, “I am the truth.” Truth is simply that which you can count on. If you’re ready to be set free from whatever is holding you back, reach out to Jesus. With His forgiveness, guidance, and indwelling power, you CAN fly to new heights and be free as a bird.