Isaiah 40:27-31
27
Why do you complain, Jacob?    
Why do you say, Israel,“My way is hidden from the Lord;    
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 
Do you not know?    
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,    
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,    
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 
He gives strength to the weary    
and increases the power of the weak.
30 
Even youths grow tired and weary,    
and young men stumble and fall;
31 
but those who hope in the Lord    
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;    
they will run and not grow weary,    
they will walk and not be faint.

There are birds of prey that fly above our house, which sits nearly at the level of the Garfield hilltop and overlooks 300 lush and wooded acres of Allegheny Cemetery. For several months my husband told me decisively that we were watching some type of black headed eagle swoop and soar; growing up mainly in the midwest suburbs, I believed him and his rural childhood knowledge. Why not?

Eventually he concluded that our glorious eagle was actually a turkey vulture. So that’s a pretty good metaphor for this year.

But late in the summer I saw three – three! – pairs of hawks on the wing on a particularly brilliant day. They were flying the way people do in dreams, for the sheer enjoyment of catching the current and feeling their bodies bathed in sunlight. Climbing to drop, because it feels good.

This year we have seen many people groups in our country cry out: “My cause is disregarded by my God!” Many are tired and weary. So it is fitting that Isaiah turns again to nature, reminding us of giant birds on the wing as a symbol of power and freedom. Not the brave, ferocious, stick-it-to-our-enemies kind of freedom we associate with the American eagle’s razor sharp talons. This is the freedom of hope: strength renewed, regardless of age or physical limitations. Power to the weak. An invisible wind guiding us on a non-linear journey, if we will stop fighting it and just lean in.

God of the cosmos, spirit of all living things, these are times of stumbling and great weariness. For the ill, the anxious, and the lonely, we pray an extra measure of the understanding no one can fathom. Remind us this advent what it is like to walk and not be faint. Show us how to be a people that soars. Amen.