Aliferous

What?? Before you start doing a search for the meaning of this word, I’ll save you the time.  Aliferous means “having wings” or “winged.”  I can just hear God laughing when this word showed up while doing a search on another name for wings.   Maybe He even said, “This will get you to sit up and take notice,” with a little LOL afterwards.  Now that you and I both know what aliferous means, I will convert to the word wings for our inspiration this week.   I think of wings when I gaze out over the ocean, surveying the different winged creatures our Lord has created.  I spot my favorite, a slightly uneven line of pelicans making their way along the sand dunes, only moving their wings after long bouts of gliding along peacefully.  They seem to be without a care and in no rush, with no particular destination in mind.  I even watch them contently floating on the water, patiently waiting for their next meal. Then there are the seagulls.  They move a little quicker, while searching for their food, with more speed and determination in their wings.  Then I notice a large group of sandpipers.  Generally, I see them congregating at the ocean’s edge; but when flying about, they are like a seagull that just finished a can of Red Bull.  I only wish I had their energy!  I think about the more than 11,000 species of birds that populate this earth, each one created by God.   Does it maybe cause you to wonder why God didn’t give us, as humans, wings too?  Or maybe He did! I know when I am following Jesus, and attempting to do His will, I feel like I have wings.  He lifts me up, like the familiar hymn “On Eagles Wings”, when I am low.  Like the birds that I admire on the beach, He gives me the energy every day to spread and flap my wings, whether it’s slow and graceful or, many times, filled with a little too much energy.  All you and I have to do is remember to picture God supporting us with His wind – His strength – beneath our wings.  If we continue to focus on following Him, we will all have those invisible wings that allows us to take flight away from our anxieties that this world brings.   Next time you take time to gaze on the beauty and differences in God’s aliferous creatures, I hope that you will also thank God for creating us as winged creatures because we are true believers!   

“He will cover you with His wings; you will be safe in His care; His faithfulness will protect and defend you.”  Psalms 91:4