LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Wings for Tomorrow
You and I cannot live for a moment in the present; if we don't move forward, we go backwards. Our alternatives are hopes or memories, Canaan or Egypt, the land of promise or the land of hindsight. The intermediary place is always a desert – a barren desert. Thought cannot dwell there, nor does it ever seek to dwell there. He must have the wings for tomorrow or the wings for yesterday; he must "fly" if he wishes to rest.
Be mine, then, the wings for tomorrow, oh my God! If I get the wings for tomorrow first, then I can come back too. Memory cannot bring hope, but hope can grace memory – even dark memories. Egypt, seen from the mountains of Canaan, can look very pretty; their toils may be glorified, their pains justified. If you are preparing me for a heaven of sacrificial love, these struggles and these pains are already justified.
If my Canaan were a mere place of pleasure, every tear shed in Egypt would be a waste of time. But when, like Caleb, I look through the glass bars of Your city and see that the cross is its crown, I can understand it all.
I understand why your roses have been red, not white. I understand why the drops of blood spattered the garden of life; I understand why my will has been so frequently frustrated, why my plans were thwarted so many times, why my path has been so interrupted.
It is because Your land of Canaan is a land of sacrifice and I am preparing myself for this sacrifice. It is because the rose of Your sky is the flower of the passion of Calvary. It is because the center of Your throne contains a Lamb that was slain. It is because the messengers of Your will are ministering spirits. It is because Your resurrection life maintains the nail marks. It is because the humblest are the greatest in the kingdom of Your glory. The slavery of Egypt will be a golden memory when I accept the vision of Your land of Canaan. (George Matheson).