breaking branches
Oct 25th, 2009 by Nathanael
Yesterday, I was hanging out at Kerr Park, reading and writing in my journal. I spotted a red-tailed hawk swooping over the creek, trying to land on a branch. But the branch was dead and promptly broke under its weight. Yet the hawk did not plummet to the ground. With one flap of its wings, it flew off.
How often in our spiritual lives do we try to put our weight on something only for it to collapse right under us? Sometimes we follow the branch as gravity draws it earthward. And we land on the unyielding ground. Yet other times we are able to rise above it. Why?
There is that well-known verse in Isaiah 40 that says those who trust or hope in the Lord will mount up with wings like eagles. When our confidence is in the keeping power of our Redeemer, we are held up by Him.
What we discover is that this trust is not a once-and-done thing that happens upon our conversion after which we never fall. Rather it is a moment-by-moment trusting that allows us, like that hawk, to stay aloft.