Lent Devotional 9 

I have always loved to read and dream about flying. I remember reading about Jimmy Doolittle and flying the mail in the 1920s in an open cockpit bi-plane. I remember stories of Eddie Rickenbacker as a World War I ace and race car driver. There is something that still fascinates me about the rush of wind through the hair and flying close enough to the ground to see it all.

I also would read the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels of John Carter of Mars. Burroughs had this incredible imagination that created whole cultures and races on the Red Planet. A big part of these stories centered on “flyer” that silently flew through the sky and through flight experienced all the mysteries of a new and unknown world.

I am the right age to remember Alan Shepherd’s flight into space and John Glenn orbiting the earth 3 times. And I will never forget the blast-off of Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong’s words “the Eagle has landed”. Space travel has become almost routine, but Shuttle launches that instantly move from successful to tragically remind us of the danger that attends the adventure of flight.

I remember the first time I ever flew. I was 25 years old and it was a flight to Bob and Brenda Gibbs wedding in Atlanta. The plane was a Lockheed L-1011 and it was an early morning flight on a blue-bird sky kind of day. From 30,000 feet I could see the Suwannee River and other landmarks that told me exactly where we were. There was no wind blowing through my hair, but world never looked so different and so big.

I am now much older and wiser. I can dream of flying in an open cockpit, but with each passing day that is less of a reality. But deep down my dreams of flying are one more reminder of how big and wonderful life really is.

As I have focused on God at The Heart of Christianity, I have been reminded of the risk of limiting God to human reality. Every time I think I have God figured out I have a new flight experience which opens my imagination to the unlimited reality of the Almighty. When I try to limit God I am reminded that God is a part of all Creation and not limited by my human understanding.

Today seek to experience God at the limit of your imagination.

SHALOM,

Tom Mc