RAPTOR CONGREGATION

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the day approaching.   Hebrews 10:25   (NIV)

There’s a place of gentle hills where a highway crosses a wooded stream, where the air currents are powerful and varied enough to delight the kings of the air. On a blue morning of sunlight and white clouds brushing the treetops, I saw a congregation of hawks in a dance of praise to their Creator.

I couldn’t begin to count the tornadic cloud of their main body—50, 60, possibly more. They soared and swirled and banked, riding the wind on outstretched wings. Then one or several would glide away to circle one of the smaller updrafts surrounding the main column. Others would leave their smaller circles to rejoin the congregation, over and over and over.

How like Christ’s church! We come together to worship and praise God, return as families to our lives in this world, then gather again and again. Is our praise as pure and instinctive as theirs is? When the hawks separated, they continued their dance. Do we? Do we continue to celebrate our Savior, making those who do not know Him hungry for the Bread of Life, thirsty for the Living Water? Do we by our eagerness to return to the House of God make others wonder what’s there? 

Or do we slip back into the world, forsaking the assembly of saints, compromising our witness?

Avi, our Father, thank You for the joy you give us, for the peace that passes understanding. Help us to set aside the world with its cares and temptations, and praise You with our whole hearts, untainted by the world. In Your holy name, Amen.