El  Condor Pasa*

But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

A month or so ago my husband and I went to Salt Lake for a short visit with our daughter and family. It was my birthday and a good  excuse to make the  tedious eight hour trip.  We wanted to spend time with our two grand daughters who are growing up far too quickly for this Oma. Apart from the small cities dotting Highways 86  and 84, we drove through  mostly  dry landscapes of pale green sage brush, junipers, striated buttes  and occasional sheep grazing.

 Daughter Lisa is always energetic, makes sure we don’t get bored and usually plans for us to visit local attractions. This time she suggested going to the Tracy Aviary in Liberty Park located close by. After the severe windstorm in 2020  which took out a large portion of the park’s trees, the aviary was expanded and is open again for visitors. We had a very delightful half day admiring the birds , from tiny back yard birds to owls, ibis, flamingos, North American eagles, colorful macaws and brooding, hunched over vultures.

I was mesmerized by “Andy” the magnificent  Andean condor which is the largest bird of prey in the world. The condor originates in South America, is the national symbol of several countries and the stuff of myths. According to the information given, this condor (a type of vulture)  has a wingspan  over ten feet long, can fly up to 18,000 feet and  nests on the most inaccessible crags and ledges.  It can live seventy years or longer and has no natural enemies.  Most fascinating to me is that the condor will flap it enormous wings to attain soaring altitude, but thereafter, it scarcely  moves its wings again, perhaps only once an hour – if observed at all. It is born  to rise to mountainous heights, soar effortlessly  and dwell there.

And yet here was Andy in a cage scarcely large enough for him  to spread out his wings!   He was almost hidden among the rocks and tree limbs which decorate most of the bird enclosures.  Meant to fly close to the heavens, he’d never fly again and seemed shrunken.  In his confined space he was merely another bird. I was seeing  a pale version of the condor flying free over the Andes mountains.  Please understand.  I am not being critical of the bird’s current habitat or the dedicated conservationists who provide for him. Without their efforts and care, I would never have seen a condor “beak to beak”, so to speak.    It was an inspiring visit and subsequent lesson.

As children of God are we not exponentially more magnificent and precious in God’s eyes than this pinnacle of feathers and wings? Did God not create us in His own image and likeness and breathe life into our nostrils at creation to carry His divine image?  We who are fearfully and wonderfully made should remember that nowhere in Scripture is this said of any other of God ‘s creatures. Fallen, redeemed and reborn in the Lord, we’re transformed to soar close to the heavens while walking on the ground humbly as Jesus did on earth.  The paradox is in  Jesus: He offers us the freedom of the heavens while asking us to  remain and abide only in Him.  We don’t even have to flap by our own efforts.  Held by the Lord we can soar beneath the shadow of Holy Wings which move unseen for us.

I wonder. Are you and I truly free like this? Or do we return to cages so constricting we can’t extend our arms upwards to pray:  cages of fear or deception or unforgiveness? Crouched in dark enclosures of self pity, hatred and condemnation?  We shuffle into cages, locking  the door behind us and brood.  Even after decades of knowing God’s Love and Truth in my heart, I sometimes crawl back into places like that and forget who I am, who God made me to be, who Jesus died to redeem and set free, whom the Father loves as His child.   

God has given us sparrows and eagles and condors to ponder as the praiseworthy work of His hands. Like them, I long to soar on wind currents.  I long to be up there or out beyond where Andy the condor once flew. I long for my whole being to be free of whatever tries to drags me back into the cage . Unlike the condor, Christians do have an enemy who preys on us and never wants us out of confinement.   

Jesus promised that He would provide for us. He would not leave us  helpless and hopeless and imprisoned.   The Spirit would come  to teach us all things. Including soaring.

And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—John 14:6

Is it not the breath, the wind of the Holy Spirit who  provides the empowering lift, the height and the breadth of all that’s  needed?  The one thing required of us is to step in faith out of the shadows and through  caged doors. They were never locked.

* The Condor Passes. A song written in 1913 by Peruvian composer Daniel Alomia Robles. It’s based on an Andean folk melody and became popular with  Simon and Garfunkle’s  1970 version.