Having just returned from Camp Or L’Dor and now expecting house guests at our home in Maine for the next ten days, I have been a bit preoccupied. So I decided to look at my collection of writings and share again the reflection below, as timely now as it was then over a decade ago.

Perhaps at this time I would add that the truth of God’s nearness is also as comforting now as it was back then. No matter what is happening far or near, the comfort we feel when we allow ourselves to take a deep breath and sink into the shalom that comes from feeling our Abba’s embrace is indescribable. It is life affirming.

How is it that we can conceptualize holy wings and a holy Father, up there, and at the same time, feel intimately embraced? This mystery was revealed to me in 2001, two days before 9/11 brought unprecedented horror, when I was filled with the truth of Yeshua as mystically all-in-one Him. It is through Yeshua and the Ruach HaKodesh that we truly feel the deepest of God’s Love for us.

In the Shadow of His Wings

Sid and I have been fascinated this summer watching the happenins’ in an osprey nest on an island about a mile offshore from our home in Maine. Ospreys are large birds just smaller than eagles. They are beautiful, majestic in flight. Quite awe inspiring to watch. Each June a couple returns to a particular nest that is very easy to see from our kayaks. We had been checking regularly and watching the progress of the mother bird sitting on the eggs, the hatchlings growing into young birds. The pattern was always that the “Dad” (we call him “Ozzie”) would sit on a tree just behind the nest to watch from a bit of a distance, while “Mom” (we call her “Olivia”) stayed on the nest, or as the babies have grown, she would stay on its edge. Until recently. . .

When we arrived, there was a motor boat anchored in the nearby cove and on shore were the driver’s wife, daughter, grandchild, and a dog! The island is a bird sanctuary and people are not allowed to land there until after the nesting season ends (July 31st.) When I looked at the nest, it looked abandoned and Ozzie was not to be seen anywhere. Sid (who is a registered Maine guide) kindly discussed the rules with the visitors who eventually left. I just stayed and bobbed in the cove, thinking maybe the babies had gotten big enough to fly away since our last visit.

Actually, after the visitors had been gone for about 10 minutes, from a distance we saw Ozzie return to his perch on the nearby tree. He must have been defending his family stealthily from afar, even though we couldn’t see him. Suddenly, Olivia popped up from the nest. She must have been lying on top of the babies, down low, so an intruder would think the nest was abandoned, all the time being there to safely protect her young.

Today as I watched one of the young ones snuggle under Olivia’s wing, I was so reminded of our Abba. As with these mom and dad birds, He nurtures us, teaches us, protects us. Even when we think He’s not there, when danger strikes as when the visitors came to the island, when we can’t feel our Abba’s presence, He’s there, imperceptibly, like Ozzie’s watchful eye, covering us with His protection. At the same time,  our Abba can be our Father “up there” as well as through Yeshua and the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, right here, like Olivia, He is intimately with us in each moment. He supports us and teaches us, getting us ready for what lies ahead, while still sheltering us in the shadow of His wings.

May your week be filled with the unshakable knowledge of this truth, and the intimate comfort of His wings.

Shabbat shalom.

Diane