Seeing Jesus in Eagles (Part II)

ANDREW & CONNOR UPDATE: I got this text from Joe today "Andrew is not well and his prognosis is not good. Please ask your friends and family to pray. It's very bad". So please lift him and his family up if you would. Connor is thankfully back home now and waiting to see if there are any donor cells in his marrow that might replicate - the doctors aren't expecting anything but please pray for a divine miracle. You can check their respective blogs on my blogroll for more details.
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I just drove back from Northern Wisconsin where we spent much of the week with Kim's side of the family doing beautiful outdoor activities like boating, horseback riding, camp fires, and the like - it is so amazingly beautiful out there. Yesterday Kim asked Caleb which he enjoyed more Disney World or Wisconsin better and to my surprise he said, "Wisconsin". Apparently the best man has to offer,  still cannot compare to what God has to offer.

I snuck out early this morning and sat in front of a large lake behind the house we were staying at reading The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. I was on chapter five and it was feeding my soul so I'd like to share it:

"We get so preoccupied with ourselves, the words we speak, the plans and projects we conceive that we become immune to the glory of creation. We barely notice the cloud passing over the moon or the dewdrops clinging to the rose leaves. The ice on the pond comes and goes. The wild blackberries ripen and wither. The blackbird nests outside our bedroom window. We don't see her. We avoid the cold and the heat. We refrigerate ourselves in summer and entomb ourselves in plastic in winter. We rake up every leaf as fast as it falls. We are so accustomed to buying prepackaged meats and fish and fowl in supermarkets we never think and blink about the bounty of God's creation. We grow complacent and lead practical lives. We miss the experience of awe, reverence, and wonder. Our world is saturated with grace, and the lurking presence of God is revealed not only in spirit but in matter - in a deer leaping across a meadow, in the flight of an eagle, in fire and water, in a rainbow after a summer storm, in a gently doe streaking through a forest, in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, in a child licking a chocolate ice cream cone, in a woman with windblown hair. God intended for us to discover his loving presence in the world around us." (pp. 89-90)

You'll find this funny but right before I got to the part about "the flight of an eagle" I looked up from the book and guess what I see? A bald eagle flies about 30 feet in front of my face and soars over the lake. When I looked back down and read one sentence later "the flight of an eagle"  I just started laughing. Only God could do that! It was the only bald eagle I saw all morning and the timing could not have been more perfect. As it flew off I just started reciting one of my all-time favorite verses....Isaiah 40:31:

but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

A couple months ago I wrote a post called "Seeing Jesus in Eagles" (see HERE) and I was reminded of all the things the Lord wanted to teach us about ourselves in and through his creation of eaglets and eagles. I also just happened to get an email from a friend (whom I've never met) who has followed this blog and faithfully prayed for us with a link to an article from the late Chuck Colson's Breakpoint called "Rescuing Hope". It speaks about the difference between hope and optimism and what it means to hope IN the Lord. Please check out the link HERE if you have a moment and are struggling to find hope.

Praying that Andrew and Connor and their families find strength as they hope in the Lord. I pray that each of you will as well.

In His Hope,

Peter & Kim