A/N: Hello and welcome to my new subscribers! I am so excited to share this story and my many adventures with you. Due to school and work demands, I am unable to write a post every single week. So my uploading schedule will change to every 1st and 3rd Monday of the month. Last week, I talked about grapes and what they mean to me. I had intended on publishing part two of that series, "Freeways." Unfortunately, I have not completed that story. I'll share that with you as soon as possible. In the meantime, here is a story about "flying under the hood" and what that means in our Christian walk.
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When I was 17 years old, I learned to fly an airplane. I was so nervous on my first lesson but when I got up into the sky and saw the world from above, it was breathtaking. We flew over Six Flags, watching the roller coasters, massive structures, and it was like I was on my own special roller coaster ride and I got to decide where it would go, not restricted by predetermined tracks.
When you're flying, you're constantly looking outside of the airplane. You're scanning the sky for other aircraft, looking to the horizon as a visual marker, you look to the ground for roads and landmarks. You check your instruments, to make sure the numbers all make sense, then you look back outside.
But what happens when you fly into a cloud?
Imagine being in a car early in the morning. Your family is driving along and this thick fog rolls in from the mountains. All the cars slow down and you're suddenly surrounded by white and grey, unable to see more than a few feet ahead of you.
When you fly into a cloud, you lose all visual references to the outside world. Your sense of direction gets turned around, you might think that you're flying straight but in reality, you're already drifting off course, the plane banking to one side.
In preparation for this possibility, we do something called "flying under the hood." A hood is usually a hard plastic that goes on your head, like a baseball cap but the front extends out and to the sides, limiting your view so that you can only see your instruments. You can't see the sky, the ground, or the horizon. You can only see the dials in front of you and you need to trust it. Your senses will tell you otherwise but you can't believe how you feel because it isn't always accurate. It is easy to get disoriented in a cloud. You have to look to what is reliable, believe it, and fly accordingly.
I think of the story of Peter walking on water. It happens after the feeding of the 5,000. He has seen Jesus do countless miracles, he believes and has the faith and courage to step out of the boat, stand on waves and walk towards Jesus. But it says in Matthew that, "he saw the wind" and was afraid. It says it was the fourth watch of the night, the last watch just before daybreak. The sky is dark, and you can feel the wind on your skin, the air is howling in your ears, the waves moving beneath you, your hair and your clothes being whipped around you. Peter knows that Jesus is just ahead of him, he has seen Jesus rebuke a storm before but he saw the wind, the sea, the waves, and the darkness, and he lost sight of him who is reliable. Peter is outside of the boat, outside of what is familiar, the points of reference on which he relies have been removed, only Jesus remains but like a disoriented pilot, he tries to look through the clouds for answers instead of trusting the instruments and his plane begins to bank, Peter begins to sink. It is crucial that we look to God, that we trust him, and act accordingly.
We are in the fourth watch of the night, just before daybreak. Just a little longer before Jesus returns in all his glory. But we're going to encounter some clouds and storms before He arrives. Safely navigating starts with knowing our instruments, in knowing the Word He has given us, the Bible, so that when the fog rolls in, or when you fly into a cloud, look to Jesus and live.
If you'd like to see a video version of this story, check it out on YouTube by clicking the image below:
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