I'll Fly Away
I stayed up a little past my bedtime last night because I was glued to this fascinating story on television: Nestled somewhere deep in the Rocky Mountains, a rafting company sends a photographer downstream from the rafters to take pictures of them as they hit some of the big rapids. Afterward, the photographer then drives back to the company’s headquarters to develop the film. The set of proofs is posted for the rafters before their return and they can then buy the pictures as souvenirs. The problem is this: driving back to the headquarters takes at least forty-five minutes. Add in the windy roads and the traffic, and sometimes the photographers don’t make it back in time. The pictures aren’t developed in time for the returning rafters to see them. The company potentially loses sales because of this time crunch. So the business partners got together and had a brilliant idea: Pigeons.
They trained the pigeons to follow the river to the mouth of the canyon and then take a right and fly straight to the headquarters. It wasn’t easy, but it worked. A pigeon is only allowed one job every few days, so a whole staff of pigeons is at the beck and call of the photographer. Each pigeon is outfitted with its own backpack which holds one canister of film. The photographer carries about five pigeons out, takes pictures, and loads the finished roll of film into the pigeon’s cute little backpack. The pigeon then flies back to headquarters. It takes the pigeon only sixteen minutes to make the trip, roughly a third of what it would take a car.
Thinking about the Christian life, we are a lot like those pigeons. Simply put, we are on a mission to make it home. We might not have a big birdhouse waiting on us, but we do have a prepared place. In fact, Jesus said in John 14:2-3, “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go there to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (NKJV).
This world is not my home, I’m just a-passin’ through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door,
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
They trained the pigeons to follow the river to the mouth of the canyon and then take a right and fly straight to the headquarters. It wasn’t easy, but it worked. A pigeon is only allowed one job every few days, so a whole staff of pigeons is at the beck and call of the photographer. Each pigeon is outfitted with its own backpack which holds one canister of film. The photographer carries about five pigeons out, takes pictures, and loads the finished roll of film into the pigeon’s cute little backpack. The pigeon then flies back to headquarters. It takes the pigeon only sixteen minutes to make the trip, roughly a third of what it would take a car.
Thinking about the Christian life, we are a lot like those pigeons. Simply put, we are on a mission to make it home. We might not have a big birdhouse waiting on us, but we do have a prepared place. In fact, Jesus said in John 14:2-3, “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go there to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (NKJV).
This world is not my home, I’m just a-passin’ through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door,
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
Are you flying straight home, or are you getting distracted by the scenery of this world?
posted by *Kimmer* @ 11:42 AM
<< Home