The Power of Feathers

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

My friend Joann laid in the emergency room, a brace around her neck, her body covered with warm blankets and a blood-soaked bandage wrapped her left foot. The car accident had been severe, totaling her car and backing up traffic while three paramedic teams cared for the drivers and passengers. I had just seen her the night before and she’d told me that every night she read Psalm 91, claiming the protection from many methods of attacks.  And here she was.  When I arrived at her bedside, I pulled out my Bible to read those familiar words…”no harm will befall you.”  The words seemed to mock Joann’s situation.  I said to her, “It may not seem like it right now, but these words are true.” 

For a while Psalm 91 was written on a banner that wrapped the perimeter of the cozy prayer room at our church.  We were encouraged to meditate on and pray through that psalm, which I did more than once. There was a pair of large wings covered with white soft feathers that also hung on the wall.  They had probably been part of an angel’s pageant costume and they gave the impression of a mighty soaring bird.  That actually is the image I have when reading Psalm 91. 

But I get a very different impression of wings of refuge when I read Christ’s words in Matthew 23:37, “how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”  Although the images are quite different, they are not contradictory.  And when I need refuge, I don’t care what birds’ feathers are available.

Feathers as designed by the creator serve ubiquitous sparrows and majestic eagles.  They provide protective body covering, trap air for body warmth, provide insulation and increase buoyancy for water birds.  Some specialized feathers protect the eyes and nostrils during flight and others around the mouth actually snatch insects. All of those purposes fit nicely, reassuringly into the psalm.

Then very early this morning I experienced first hand

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. 91:4

 It was four-eleven a.m. when I got out of bed to go to the bathroom.  I stumbled through the room with my eyes mostly shut so I wouldn’t disturb my sleep too much.  I felt I’d succeeded when I crawled back to bed very sleepy.  But the moment my head hit the pillow, my mind was barraged with fearful thoughts. “No, please not now,” I begged.  I had horrific tempests the day before with fear and worry and my daughter Alissa and husband Wayne held the life line taut for me and I made it to the other side of the troubling waters.  The attacks and turbulence in the middle of the night are horrendous.  “No, please spare me,” I prayed silently. 

But I wasn’t spared.  The gale, though intense, didn’t last long and I landed on these thoughts. 

            1) My second son, David, was jaundiced after birth and it took several precarious days until he was out of the woods. I was sent home without him, fearful, worried and even after a lifetime of Sunday School and Christian education I didn’t know where to go in scripture for comfort or encouragement.  That storm was a wake-up-call for me in how little of God’s Word I knew and how much more of it I needed.

            2) After starting our business we went through the worst financial situation we’d ever experienced.  Every bill produced fear in me, but also taught me that God was my literal provider.  I learned to cling to him like a life buoy.  I also learned how to pray about everything. 

In some mysterious way those memories settled my churning fearful mind. It was like Dramamine to sea-sickness.  It was, as I would find out, being covered with feathers.

As I was ready to sleep, Wayne asked if I was awake.  “Yeah?”  I said, sensing the gusting of my calm waters. I realized in the next few minutes that my rough sailing was not only for my benefit.  Unknowingly I secured a harbor for the imminent whirlwind that threatened to capsize Wayne.   I experienced as much of his storm as I had in my own squall.  This time I was on duty to hold the life line and I had been readied. I really didn’t have to say much; nearly nothing at all.  I just needed to listen.  I felt extremely calm, like I was protected behind a shield, a curtain of feathers with a powerful tempest just beyond them.

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

 Psalm 91:11-12

Immediately I recognized the intricacy of the last few minutes. I marveled at the delicate work of the Holy Spirit to make sure I wasn’t awaked out of a deep sleep, caught unsuspectingly in turbulent waters of fear and sheltered during the torrent that was outside of me.  My thoughts moved from “Thank you for this safe, peaceful place,” to “Thank you that you are bringing Wayne to a similar place through this.” 

I’d never considered the strength of feathers. Also it was most pleasurable to imagine angelic activity around me.  They awakened me through a natural body function, let me experience the raw tactics of my enemy, reassured me by highlighting pertinent spiritual landmarks of my life and then tucked feathers together making a shelter for my abiding.  I was cared for.

At one point I did consider stepping over to the feathers and separating them a bit to peek out at the storm.  But I didn’t want to disrupt the detailed work or the peace it afforded. So I thanked and I prayed from under the covering of his wings.

Joann is still in the hospital.  She now has a soft cast on her foot, but it didn’t require surgery. She has a fractured pelvis that is amazingly treated with ice.  She is under observation for a few days which is expected, unnerving, but at this point not threatening. Numerous contusions over her body could make one doubt the presence of feathers or make us realize there is nothing downy about protective coverings.

Whether I thought so or not, Psalm 91 was true in the emergency room, in my middle-of-the night terror and in whatever arrows fly by day.  I can, I will, rest in the shadow of the Almighty for He is willing to cover me with his feathers.

And Wayne?  He also made it to the dwelling place of the Most High, though he migrated an alternate route.  After all, he is a bird of a different feather.