Sheltering wings

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge (Psalm 91:4).

An article several years ago in National Geographic provided an interesting picture of God's wings. After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno's damage. One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched like a statue on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked the bird over with a stick. When he gently moved the body, three tiny chicks scurried out from underneath their dead mother's wings. The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise. She could have flown to safety but had refused to abandon her babies. Then the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body, but in spite of the horrendous pain leading to death, the mother had remained steadfast. Because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings would live.

Such a tableau surely makes us think of Jesus Christ. The Son of God once compared His love for us to the nurturing desire of a mother bird: I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings (Matthew 23:37). Our Savior loves us deeply—so deeply that He would do anything to protect us from the flames.

Yes, flames—for we were in danger of dying in fire, the awful fire of hell. Hell is a place of eternal suffering, where the fire that burns is never exhausted. Those flames are more terrible than you or I can imagine, because they are sent by God Himself, out of His hatred and loathing of sin. God is perfect, while sin is everything that opposes perfection; and so God promises everlasting destruction in the flames for everyone who chooses sin over Him.

But Jesus knew how terrible the flames are, and out of His deep love for us, He flew down from heaven to we who are grounded on earth and wrapped us in His loving wings. Instead of allowing the flames of God’s wrath to consume us, He shielded us by taking upon Himself the pain of those flames as He hung on the cross. He could have flown away and saved Himself the agony of God’s judgment at any time; the nails that held Him to the cross had no true power over the Son of God. No, what kept Him on the cross during the suffering leading to death was His love for us, a love that would not abandon us to the flames. Jesus died at the cursed tree of Calvary--died protecting us, so that we might find everlasting life in the shelter of His wings.