Oh, to Soar!
June 10, 2017
“And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.” – Psalm 55:6
It was November 21, 1783 in Paris, France. Physicist Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes fulfilled the dreams of generations when they became the first humans to fly. Rising to a height of 3000 feet, they drifted for 25 minutes before landing 5 miles from where they started in a hot air balloon.
For as long as human memory has been recorded, men and women have admired the great birds of the sky and wondered what it would be like to soar above the clouds.
Helen Keller said, “One cannot consent to creep when one has an impulse to soar.”
The psalmist mused about the possibility of soaring above the cares of life, above his circumstances, and above his limitations until he came to a place of rest and fulfillment.
Soon after the Paris flight, ballooning became a popular recreation. Yet still today, it is cause for amazement and imagination. To fly away and see our little worlds below from the vantage of eternity is a longing that God has placed in our hearts. To rise above our impossibilities is a God-shaped and God-sized dream.
Where places a longing, God plants the possibility and the power within us. He has not made us to be ordinary, sedentary, or earth-bound.
He has made us to soar.