Higher and Higher

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.  Phil.  3:14

In the last few weeks, we have loved watching the hummingbirds from our porch.  There are three feeders, and they hungrily go from one to the other filling up for their long migration flight.  The males are gone I hear, but the females and babies are still here for a couple more weeks.

The other day, I opened the garage door after returning home to find a baby hummer who was trapped inside frantically trying to get out.  No matter how I encouraged him to fly low enough to be successful, he kept flying higher and higher.  These birds are supposed to have the largest brains and be among the smartest of the birds.  They can remember their routes of migration, and every flower they have visited.  It is said that they even recognize humans, yet he couldn’t find his way out.

Exhausted, he finally lit on the top of the garage door.  Randy climbed the ladder, and the hummer let him pick him up in his cupped hands.  I stroked his head, we took him outside, let him go, and watched him soar higher and higher and away.

It seems that the instinct to raise ourselves higher and higher is instilled in all of us.  In our everyday world, we strive to attain higher goals for ourselves and our family, attain higher status in our respective careers, attain a higher salary, and the list goes on.  We all seem to seek something more beyond our daily life.

In 1898 Johnson Oatman, Jr. felt the same way about the need to reach higher and higher in his spiritual life.  He wrote many hymns, but one of the favorites is Higher Ground.  I believe the lyrics tell the story of our need to achieve something higher than what this earthly life can offer.

I’m pressing on the upward way;  New heights I’m gaining everyday.                         Still praying as I’m onward bound; Lord plant my feet on higher ground.                 Refrain:                                                                                                                                               Lord life my up, and let me stand; By faith on heaven’s table land.                               A higher plane than I have found; Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

As we seek to rise above all the distractions of life, I pray that like our hummingbird, we will just keep rising higher and higher.

Photo by Donna LaChance