Wings

One of the comforting pictures from the Hebrew Scriptures is that of the faithful resting 'under God's wings.'  It's found five places in the Psalms:  17:8, 36:7, 57:1, 63:7, and 91:4 .   It's also used in Ruth 2:12, when Boaz shows favor to Ruth and says "May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."  This is a figure of speech comparing God to a mothering bird, protecting her chicks from the eyes of predators and sheltering them from rain, sun and harm. 

Does God have wings?  Hardly; God isn't hampered by physical form, although he has sometimes appeared as a human (for instance, Genesis 18).  But his loving care for us is described in many different ways in Scripture, including this picture of providing and protecting.  Jesus didn't have wings either but he picks up this word-picture, as recorded by Matthew and Luke.  In Luke 13:34, he says "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me."  Jesus' people refused his offer of protection, preferring their own blindness to his offer of God's redemption through his suffering.

But he was put to death on a cross, which was most likely an upright stake (the basic meaning of the Greek word used) with a crosspiece which he was forced to carry to the hill where he was killed.  The soldiers nailed him to the crosspiece, and put a sign over his head (Matthew 27:35-37) proclaiming him, ironically, "King of the Jews."  

Now, this is total speculation on my part -- this interpretation doesn't appear in Scripture so I can't claim it's authoritative, just a word picture in my own head.  As Jesus' arms were spread out and his hands nailed to the crosspiece of his stake, with the sign above naming him as King of the Jews, he 'spread out his wings' in a manner of speaking, to provide shelter and protection for all people -- his own nation as well as all of us Gentiles.  Though he died a criminal's death, it was to save us from our crimes against him:  "I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said" (1 Cor. 15:3).  


Colossians 1:20 says, "Through [Jesus] God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross."  God has already brought you back to himself, through Jesus' blood.  The only question is whether you find yourself "under the shadow of his wings" as he says you already are -- or whether, like Jesus' own people, you stubbornly prefer your way -- a way that didn't work for them either?  God lets you choose.  I pray you choose life.