Lowering Our Wings

"When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings. Then there came a voice from above the vault over their heads as they stood with lowered wings" (Ezek 1:24-25).

When the creatures in Ezekiel's vision were moving about, their wings created a deafening sound that would prevent them from hearing the Word of the Lord.  But when they lowered their wings (stopped their moving about, being still) then the Voice of the Lord came to them.

While we do not have actual wings like these heavenly creatures, we do flit about on wings of busyness, flapping about doing first one thing and then another as we meet the demands of a hurried culture depicted by Tim Kimmel as "The Little House on The Freeway."

Despite all the time and labor saving devices afforded by our advanced culture, we are busier than ever as we have to work more to afford all those luxuries that we now hold as necessities.  With the affluence gained from the income of an affluent country, we also add on a litany of personal, community, school and extra-curricular activities. 

We get our kids to school get ourselves to work, get to the soccer practice, get to the meeting, get to the movies - getting after it until we have gotten exhausted from all the flitting about, beating our wings too loudly to hear the Lord call us to "Be still and know I am the Lord" (Ps 46:10).  Too busy, frantically trying to keep all the balls in the air, believing that everything rests on our ability to keep on top of them, our ability to overcome the challenges of life, not realizing that "The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still" (Ex 14:14).

I'm not talking about inactivity as we have little choice but to face the challenges of daily living, but we can be still in our spirits, trusting in God's power and grace to see us through rather than the frantic beating of our own wings, attempting to keep up a pace that can keep us down.  Jesus doesn't call us to dismiss our burden, rather he invites us to "come unto me all who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you" (Matt 11:28-30) - step out of your individual yoke of individual burden and step into the yolk of shared burden, burden shared with the Lord.

Knowing God is with us and will strengthen us by pulling along side us, we can stop our flitting and take comfort in His promise, "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and meinds in Christ Jesus" (Phil 4:7).  As we lower our wings, we raise our awareness of God's presence, finding rest for our souls.  Jus' Say'n.