Wings of a Dove
Perhaps one of the most wonderful assertions that can be made
about Holy Scriptures is that it clearly shows man in all his
humanness. If you really want to understand yourself, if you
really desire to know who you are, then it would behoove you to
study the sacred Writ and let God speak to your soul.
When we read David's Psalms (55:6), we immediately sense his
state of emotional being. He is hurting deeply. Not physically,
but emotionally and spiritually. His soul is heavy; his spirit
is at an all time low, his heart pierced and his lips chapped
with pain as he cries, "Oh, that I had the wings of a
dove! I would fly away and be at rest."
This is a very human cry, is it not? Everyone at one time or
another has felt the way David felt: those times in life when
everything seems to go wrong; when everything we touch seem to
disintegrate, when all news is bad news. Maybe you have felt
that way when your doctor gives you the cancer diagnosis. Maybe
it was when you suffered a financial reversal; just when you
were about to get on your feet, the rug is pulled out from under
you. Maybe it was when you suffered a family tragedy or when the
plans you made begin to crumble. Maybe, it is during those
moments of betrayal, extreme disappointment or profound
loneliness that you find yourself like David, crying out in
utter agony, "If only I had wings of a dove, I would fly
away and be at rest."
The poet well understood this yearning when he wrote:
How often, oh, how often
In the days that had gone by,
I stood on the bridge at midnight
And gazed on the wave and sky.
How often, oh, how often
I had wished that the ebbing tide,
Would bear me way on its bosom
O'er the ocean, wild and wide.
For my heart was hot and restless
And my life was full of care,
And the burden laid upon me
Seemed greater than I could bear.
Sometimes all of us wish for wings to fly away. It is a very
human cry and it comes in moments of intense frustration, pain
and weakness. David wanted the wings of a bird to carry him
beyond the sunset, beyond life's troubles, beyond broken hearts,
beyond a tormented memory and unfaithful friends. Sometimes we
feel this way. We wish we could fly away to a place beyond our
circumstance, beyond the responsibility of trying to make a
living, beyond the awareness of prejudice and injustice, beyond
our mistakes and sins, heartaches and heartbreaks.
But, like David, we know that a change of venue will not give
peace. Peace does not depend upon flight because we cannot get
away from troubles. Troubles, like our shadows, follow us
everywhere we go. David learned what we all must learn and that
is that we do not need a new physical environment, but a new
spiritual one. We do not need the wings of a dove, but the arms
of a loving Father.