17th November 2025

I was walking up a footpath that made its way up a long low wide hill, which had woods on either side, when my eye was caught by a large bird spiralling up on the thermals to my left. Not actually an eagle, but the nearest East Sussex can provide, which is a buzzard. I stopped, transfixed, and watched as it slowly rose, spiralling lazily round and round in large circles, soaring ever upwards till it became a tiny speck in the sky that I could hardly see.

I was about to walk on, when I saw it change direction. I watched it swoop down at high speed from its heights in the clouds, stream straight across the field and disappear in the trees to the right. It made me think of a child sliding down a slide or a helter-skelter – there seemed no reason for the bird to do this, and it looked as if it was doing it just for the joy of soaring up and then speeding down.

I think there are times when we look at birds and think how nice it would be to be able to float on the thermals, sail through the blue skies and loop the loop through fluffy clouds, as the expression goes, free as a bird.

And whilst ‘they will soar on wings like eagles’ is part of a different point that Isaiah is making, it did strike me that there are times in our lives in Christ, and our walk in the Spirit when we have beautiful transcendent moments of joy, when our spirits do soar as if on wings. They come to us suddenly, unexpectedly, maybe in prayer, in worship, in music, in friendship, in seeing beauty in the world. Maybe it is the sudden deep realisation of God’s love or Jesus’s presence, or a deepening joy of forgiveness, of answered prayer – whatever it is, it is a gift of the Spirit, lifting us to heights of joy.

Local congregation:
Grace Communion in Lewes
The House of Friendship
208 High Street
Lewes
BN7 2NS

Meeting time:
Sunday 11:00 am 

Local congregational contact:
Hilary Buck
Email:  lewes@gracecom.church
Like us on www.facebook.com/Grace Communion Lewes 

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church