“but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31
I was recently invited by the 150th anniversary committee of my former congregation to write up some of the stories of the matriarchs and patriarchs of that community. It will be a daunting task. There were/ are so many people who have helped that faith community rise up and be who it is. There are so many folks who waited on one another and the larger community. Folks who waited with one another as God acted in their lives. Together they have so many incredible stories to remember and build on.
We share our stories for we act and we wait together. We live life in community with the support and challenge of one another. The prophet Isaiah knew this and uses the plural (those and they) in his powerful words, “but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
In the book, Birds of the Bible, Deborah Blue helps us to hear this verse from Isaiah in a new way. She writes that the Hebrew word Nesher is often translated as eagle, but most scholars agree that griffon vulture is a better translation. Vultures, the protective mother birds, not eagles, hunters and symbols for so many empires including our own, is what Isaiah had in mind.
Blue goes on to explain that vultures’ wings are huge, but not powerful in the same way eagles are. Vultures fly higher than almost every other bird on earth, but not by their own mighty personal strength but by a more communal energy. They open their wings and simply ride the thermal air currents, hardly flapping their wings at all.
A framed condor or vulture feather given to me by a friend hangs on the wall above my desk. It reminds me to trust and ride the spirits current. Faith is often a circling while being lifted by the Spirit of life. And so, these days I am circling back to some of the stories of those people who showed me how to be faithful while I waited for the next updraft.
It’s good to remember people like Anne Benson, a longtime member who lived out of town on the West Calvary Road. Her back yard was full of bird feeders. She loved to spend her days watching the birds and whatever other critters wondered by. Anne loved kids too, so much so that she had a special kid drawer in her tiny kitchen. The drawer was full of Tupperware and other things for kids to play with. She loved it whenever I brought my young daughters with me on my visits to her.
On the day before Anne died, we sat looking out her bedroom window at the birds for a long time. I also spent time with her reading scripture and praying. Hannah, my daughter, who was three at the time was playing in the kitchen. After our prayer together, Hannah wandered in. She softly began to sing our goodnight song, “Now I lay me down to sleep . . . “ Her words were so much more powerful than my own.
Yes, we carry on with the help of the songs and the stories of others. Ours is a communal life. Let us rise up on Vultures wings and ride the currents of the Spirit as we make our way home.
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