Heavy lifting

Okay, I promise, this is the last of my airplane analogies. (At least for the week!) I was thinking about the physics involved with lifting a massive metal behemoth into the air. Fighting against gravity, weighed down by fuel and lots of people who haven’t missed a meal in a long while, why does it take off into the air with such ease and grace? I speculate that it has something to do with the law of lift and drag. The actual details behind it are ‘rocket science’ to me, but I do know that it is a constant, irrefutable and consistent law that enables the plane to take off every time.

Imagine if you would, that the laws governing lift and drag and the law of gravity were ill defined and nebulous. Imagine if, every time a plane trundled down the runway the pilot hoped that by the end of the tarmac he would have enough speed and that the laws would be in his favor that day to enable him to take off. Flying would be a pretty short-lived and harrowing experience if that were the case. Flying analogies (as overused as they are) are excellent comparisons to our faith walk with Jesus. Imagine what life would be like if the Bible gave us no defined parameters for how to walk in intimacy with Jesus.
What if we all just had to speculate as to what He wants and just hope that we are on the right track?

I for one am grateful to the folks who discovered the physics behind lift and drag: They have made my life infinitely easier and my world significantly smaller (before the demise of the Concorde I could have breakfast in New York, lunch in London and dinner in New York. I could. But I didn't). I am even more grateful though, to the God who created the physics of lift and drag, the One who hung the stars in the heavens and positioned the sun and the moon to give us the seasons. He fashioned and modeled His creation after His own nature. He is just as constant as the laws that He created. No matter what you do, you cannot change or alter these laws. Because of them, we can rely on the guarantee that our planes will take off every time. In much the same way, we can rely on His faithfulness to do whatever He said He will do. Enjoy the journey!