One-a-Day...for the Heart: Flying Saucer
If you’re old enough to remember metal “dishpan” saucers that skimmed over the top of snowdrifts and the thrilling winter ride we enjoyed as kids when we sailed down hills and gentle slopes, you will appreciate my sister’s dream. Leah dreamed she was on a metal saucer, ready for a good ride over the snow, but was instead on the garage roof. As she flew off the roof, it was amazing how well the saucer could fly—snow or no snow. She felt as though her stomach was in her throat from the thrill of the ride and the weightlessness she experienced as she sailed into the air.
Roller-coaster rides, bungee jumping, zip-lining, and parachuting probably have the same effect of weightlessness and flying, with that stomach-in-the-throat breathtaking excitement that comes when nothing is supporting us, or we’re being whisked away by force greater than ourselves. Flying in an airplane sometimes gives me the same willies, knowing that clouds, air, wind currents, and gravity are the only forces below the plane. (My knowledge of aerodynamics is limited, so bear with me.)
Weightlessness is a good description of the out-of-control sensation in such settings, and we are forced to trust in the integrity of the plane, the zip line, the parachute, or flying saucer and enjoy the ride. As Leah sailed through the air on her flying saucer, she was forced to surrender her own ability to keep the saucer flying because, in reality, she had no ability to keep it airborne. Of our own strength and brainpower, we cannot keep a Boeing 747 airliner at an altitude of 38,000 feet. We are completely incapable of keeping it two feet off the ground.
When such activities mentioned above occur, it is impossible to control things with our weight as air currents, velocity, and gravity take over. Astronauts experience weightlessness whether they want to or not, whether they weigh 125 pounds or 200 pounds, because the elements of space take over, and it’s as though their weight is lifted from them. It’s such an unusual, abnormal phenomenon that they have special training to adjust to it. Weightlessness allows astronauts to appear super strong, and they can lift objects that would be much too heavy to move on Earth.
There is an aspect of weightlessness that Jesus Christ understands well and offers. The Bible speaks of the burden of sin that bears down on each of us. It makes our hearts heavy and separates us from our loving Heavenly Father. Christ died to relieve us of that great weight and make us completely weightless in sin, as He takes it from us. In Psalm 38:4 (NLT), David said, “My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden too heavy to bear.” Sin is an insupportable load to carry, and people who try to carry it are miserable within themselves and equally as miserable to people around them.
Jesus waits for us to give Him our burdens so that He can cleanse us from the weight of sin and free us. A beloved hymn says, what a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear; what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Jesus reminds us that He wants to lift the weight of sin from us. “Come to Me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light."
He wants us to be as free from the weight of sin as Leah was sailing through the air on her flying saucer. Who the Son sets free is free indeed! (John 8:36). Just as weightless astronauts appear super strong and can lift things they normally cannot, so we become supernaturally charged with Christ’s strength, and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). Come to Him as often as you feel the weight of sin—big or small—and He will unweight you. You can fully trust the integrity of the Savior to make you weightless of sin.
© 2022, Chris Werre