On Eagles Wings
The Book of Lamentations teaches a people a song of lament and sorrow. All that had been taken for granted was gone and uncertainty and confusion and despair remained. Lamentations is a poem, structured to be committed to memory, structured to be order amidst disorder. When we face pain our scattered cries can eventually bring an order of their own. They may be the first step to a future we could not imagine possible. The very first verse of the first chapter of Lamentations is a cry over the city. It is a remark of astonishment. The writer, thought to be Jeremiah, looks out at the city, once so full of people and says this;
“How deserted lies the city, once so full of people!”
Jeremiah’s exclamation is, if on a much grander scale, the same that you may have made in these last weeks. Who could have imagined no traffic at 5pm on a weekday? I went for a morning bike ride yesterday and wound up riding through the streets of the city, in the middle of the road, in the middle Robson Street. “How deserted lies the city, once so full of people!” Biblical imagination means that we can take verses or images that we remember from scripture and have them come to mind in the landscape of our lives. No one ever thought that Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s time would be deserted as it was. You did not envision a Spring Day in 2020 to mean an apparently deserted Vancouver. When the images or verses are brought to mind, then we can pray.
Dear God, open my eyes. Show me what matters. Forgive me for thinking too much of myself. Show me what it means to trust in you and to love others.
The ride home brought me across the Lions Gate Bridge. As I crested the hill of the bridge and began the fast downhill ride into North Vancouver, this astonishing thing happened; I glanced to my right, towards Burrard inlet and not far away from me at all, soaring alongside the bridge, keeping time with me as I rode, there was an eagle. I was caught up. This eagle was so close to me, close enough that I could see detail of it, even while it was so high up, even while it was in flight, gliding and using the creases of the wind to bank one way and the other. The slightest movement of a wing could dramatically alter the flight, but the eagle appeared to make these movements only playfully. The movement displayed a kind of showing off, like he was making fun of riding that I thought was quite fast. Then the eagle broke away and soared higher and quickly towards the inlet.
I recalled the words of God through another prophet, written to people who could not imagine a rebuilt city. These people had become aware of only loss and uncertainty, struggle, and a world of scarcity rather than abundance. “Look at that eagle”, God seemed to say. And know;
“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings, like eagles. They will run and not get weary. They will run and not grow faint.” AMEN
