The Triumph of Wings

They shall mount up with wings as eagles - Isa. 40:31

Let us learn like a bird for a moment to take
Sweet rest on a branch that is ready to break:
She feels the branch tremble, yet gaily she sings,
What is it to her ? She has wings, she has wings !
- Victor Hugo

On many mornings I have seen one of God's little creatures of the sky standing upon a flimsy branch pouring forth his sweetest melodies. What a wonderful chorister is he, and an equally wonderful preacher ! Unmindful of his perch he merrily sings. He is quite independent of the limb on which he stands. If it should break beneath his feet, his wings will lift him into the broad expanse of the sky. The happy songster preaches to us a most excellent sermon on the triumph of wings.
The things of this world on which we rest our earthly hopes are all of them like a "branch that is ready to break". Earthly security is very insecure. Our sweetest temporal happiness may at any moment be shattered.Everyday the branches are breaking beneath somebody's feet. Our hearts are frequently oppressed for the branches that have broken beneath us and fearful of the time when others will break.
But there is a better way. The bird that sings on a trembling branch tells us of it. Enjoy life's blessings while you have them. Though you feel the branch tremble, stand on it and gaily sing your sweetest song. Only do not put your chiefest trust on the branch, but in your wings. You have wings- a capacity of soul that enables you to soar far above the broken branches of earth into the infinitude of God. Keep strong the wings of faith. If loss or sorrow befalls you, do not fall dispirited to the earth. To your wings! They will lift you up into the heights where hope never dies. If the frail limb that supports your earthly life breaks, and death overtakes you, fear not. Stretch your pinions of faith, and they will bear you aloft to fly forever in the greatness and goodness of God.
The greatest fact in the nature of man is the wings of his spirit. They lift him above things transitory. They make him an immortals. No loss or sorrow of earth can trim the spirit's wings. Sing on beloved! Sing the happiest and sweetest melody that your heart knows, AND IN THE FACE OF EVERY DISASTER CRY, "I have wings !I have wings!"
------- walking with God by Costen J. Harell -



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