Last week my friend, Adrienne, sent me a text message to ask me how in the world birds can fly when it is 'crazy windy'.  I really wasn't sure of the answer and I think I said something like 'that's just what they do'.  Not very helpful, huh?  Later I sent her the lyrics to a song by the Crash Test Dummies:  How does a duck know what direction south is?  And how to tell his wife from all the other ducks? 

Life is full of questions.  Most of them are more crucial to living than the ones about birds and ducks.  But Adrienne's question got me thinking and praying and pondering about life.  And about birds.

I started watching the birds flying in the crazy wind and noticed that the windier it was, the more birds I saw flying!  What is that about?  What makes a bird fly in the crazy wind?  Well, if I am a bird, I was made to fly.  Although I have legs and I do some hopping around and some walking, mostly I fly.  My legs are kind of weak and spindly and if I don't fly when it is windy, I am hanging on for dear life by my little legs.  But my wings are probably the largest and strongest part of my physical self.  They are designed by God to be strong enough to get me off the ground and into the air in the blink of an eye.   And they are aerodynamic - they give me the ability to fly in the wind.  And all of my life I have known I was supposed to fly and I have never questioned that I would be able to fly if I needed to or wanted to.  I would just fly.  And I would long to soar.

So if I am a bird and I am made to fly, wouldn't a crazy windy day be the ultimate calling for me?  Flying in the crazy wind would take me to the limits of what I was made to do. Strong winds would make me work hard to get where I was going.  The winds would test my determination and strengthen me as I flew into them.  I would be required to set my course and move in that direction with all that I've got.  And it might be difficult.  I might get blown off course or get tired or want to quit.  But deep inside I would know that I was made to soar and that the crazy wind would help me do that if I just keep flying.  My little bird brain would instinctively and without doubt KNOW that eventually the crazy wind would lift me high where I could rest with my wings outstretched and soar effortlessly in the bright blue sky!  My little feather-shielded heart would understand that my Creator had built me to soar and that He had sent the wind so that when I did what I was made to do, I would soar higher than ever!  My greatest challenge would be my greatest victory!

Am I like the birds?  Do I look at a crazy windy day and fly knowing that the windier the day the higher I will be able to fly and that I might even soar?  Or do I feel the wind and cling tightly with my weak and spindly legs to a telephone wire, closing my eyes, clenching my beak shut, and praying for the wind to stop?  I want to soar!!!  Soaring would be fun and freeing and would take me nearer to my God!  What was I created to do?  What does soaring look like to me?  And how did the Creator build me so that my greatest challenge can become my greatest victory?  And do I know enough about Him that I know instinctively and without doubt that the winds of my life will take me to the heights where I can soar?  Does my heart feel so loved and protected by Him that I choose to fly, even if it is difficult, trusting that He knows what He is doing?  And do I believe with all the faith He has given me that even if I wait a lifetime to experience the soaring, that all the flying in the crazy wind will be worth it?

So many questions...and the answer is found in Him - in His word.  This morning I was reading in The Message, Luke, chapter 2, and meditated on a man who knew what he was created to do, never stopped believing he would one day soar in it, spent his lifetime flying and expecting, and then spent his soaring last breaths praising God and blessing others with it.  His name was Simeon and verses 25-32 tell his soaring story:

In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God:

   God, you can now release your servant;
      release me in peace as you promised.
   With my own eyes I've seen your salvation;
      it's now out in the open for everyone to see:
   A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations,
      and of glory for your people Israel.

Simeon knew he was made to fly and he knew that one day he would soar.  So he flew in the wind, every day of his life, in expectation of one day soaring in the face-to-face meeting with the Light of the World.  When he took the baby, Jesus, into his arms, he blessed God and said, "Release me to soar!"  I am certain Simeon's heart was soaring and overflowing and exploding with the joy of the promise fulfilled - not just for himself, but for all the world.  And for the glory of his Creator.

God has created each one of us to soar in some way - both for our own blessing and for the world - and all for His glory.  Some of us will experience soaring many times and some of us, like Simeon, will wait a lifetime.  But we can learn from Simeon that life is not all about the soaring experience, but about the flying in the wind with prayerful expectancy that one day the crazy wind will lift us to a place of soaring, face to face with our Lord and Savior, Jesus.  Simeon's story and my longing to soar nearer to Him remind me of one of my favorite verses - I Peter 1:8-9: Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

The inexpressible and glorious joy that makes me fly is knowing that I will one day see Him.  And I long to soar so I will not let fear and doubt and ignorance about who I have been created to be keep me clutching a telephone wire and praying for the winds to calm!  I will find out from my Creator what I am created to do and I will do it!  I will fly in all the promises and gifts and blessings that Father God has given me and I will fly in prayerful expectancy that one day the winds will catch my wings and I will soar!

So, my friend, Adrienne, birds fly in the crazy wind because they are expecting to soar.

Amy