Wonders

As I was standing on the porch, a Cooper’s hawk flew across my yard about two feet off the ground. I thought, “Oh, to be able to fly like that hawk!”

I have always been fascinated with flight. As a child, I would watch the birds and stare at airplanes as they flew overhead. By the time I was ten I could name most every bird common in North America and many others from around the world. My father learned to fly at 15.

He was taught by a former WWII ace who ran a crop dusting service that my father worked for through the summers. Being infatuated with flying,

I watched everything I could that had airplanes in it and I acquired many books on birds and planes. By the time I was 12, my father’s business had grown to the point he could fly often and soon he purchased a plane. That began my own flight experience and within a few months I was flying with several pilots.

I learned to fly using instruments first because I wasn’t tall enough to see over the dash of the plane. I learned to plot courses using air charts and would calculate fuel consumption and distance, ETA, and compass headings. I learned navigation skills and radio navigation, all the while gaining flight time.

I began to do odd jobs around the airport - fueling planes, washing planes, and helping out where ever I could in exchange for flight time. I would forsake spending time with friends to hang out at the local airport, and before long I was flying several times a week.

By the time I was 15 I was flying on my own, and I had the opportunity to fly many different types of aircraft, including twin-engine planes. By the time I was old enough to officially solo, I had well over a hundred hours flying and I continued flying for a few more years.

Throughout all my many years of interest in flight I learned to fly, and I learned about the principles of flight, about airfoils and design, about what what most efficient in different applications, about piston engines, turboprops, and jets.

The one thing that stands out beyond all mankind’s knowledge of flight is this: That hawk, that magnificent creation of God, with its tiny little brain, knows more about flying without thinking than mankind will ever know!

That hawk is more efficient in the air, more maneuverable, quieter, with more capabilities than anything man has ever designed.

Oh, man has designed planes that can fly higher and faster than the hawk but even those pale in comparison to the hawk’s flight capabilities.

You may be wondering why this talk about a hawk and flying, so let me get to the point.

As God’s child I must see God and the grandeur of the workings of His mighty creation in all things. With all of today’s technology, we cannot even come close to the perfection of this single creation of God the Father. Contemplating the creation of the hawk, many other wonders of the Scriptures flowed through my mind.

In Matthew 6 we are told,

25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;

29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek.

For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

As a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, should I not search for the Glory of God in everything? I revel in His love and this creation in which I live.

Often we concern ourselves with things that should be of no concern at all. “Oh ye of little Faith”, this we are all guilty of, and this exemplifies the importance of knowing and understanding the Word of God!  Remember this? “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”

To know the Lord God and have a personal relationship with Him, I must read and understand His mighty Word. In this we gain faith, and in gaining faith we mature in our understanding. This maturity leads to service and a desire to serve God, gaining wisdom and realizing the new creature in ourself.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, cast your burdens down and take up your cross and follow the Lord Jesus. Sacrifice yourself unto the Lord forsaking your earthly bonds to serve and worship Him.

I have never known such joy as serving my Father in Heaven.

Heavenly Father, we praise your Holy Name, we thank you for all that You do and all that You are! Amen.