Flying In The Water

“Penguins can’t fly— until they’re underwater.” 

I took my youngest daughter to the aquarium yesterday. When I came across this sign, I stood there and thought about all the times I must have been like a penguin looking at all the birds in the sky, complaining to God about my lack of ability to fly. How many times have I gazed up at the sky lamenting my limitations? How many times has my perspective been my own worst enemy? If I define “flight” as passing through the air, I lose sight of “flight” that may take place in the water. And I wonder how many of us do this very same thing in our spiritual lives?

There have been times in my life when God has allowed me to encounter circumstances that caused me to look up to the sky and lament to God, “I’m not equipped to deal with this. I wasn’t designed for this.” I can’t love the way this situation requires me to love. I can’t be patient the way this situation requires me to be patient. I look up at all the birds in the sky and complain to God about my lack of ability to fly. But God didn’t make penguins to fly in the sky. He designed them to fly in the water. The deep, deep waters. 

Only God could put a bird in the water and command it to fly. And woe to that creature who questions its Creator’s wisdom and understanding. Woe to that creature who doesn’t trust its Creator’s design. Woe to those who look up at the sky, complaining of their limitations, instead of looking to Christ and asking Him for better perspective. Woe to all the spiritual penguins like me, who spent way too long trying to figure out how to join the birds in the air, when they should have been joining the Lord in the deep water. 

Because penguins can’t fly— until they’re underwater. 

(Is 43:2,3) When you pass into waters, I [am] with you, And into floods, they do not overflow you, When you go into fire, you are not burned, And a flame does not burn against you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior..(LSV)

(Luke 5:4) When Jesus had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

(Ezekiel 47:4-6) …He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?”

(Gen 1:21,26,31) So God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters teemed according to their kinds, and every bird of flight after its kind. And God saw that it was good…Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”…And God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good.