Just last week I was looking through a book compiled by Tim Peake where he showed some of the amazing pictures taken while he was on the International Space Station. As an introduction to the book, Tim quoted the opening lines of the poem “High Flight” and, as I read it I was transported back to my school days when my English teacher Graham “Gunner” Davies used the poem as one of his lessons.
High Flight is a sonnet written in 1941 by war poet John Gillespie Magee Jr. and inspired by his experiences as a fighter pilot of the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. Magee began writing the poem on 18 August, while stationed outside London, and mailed a completed manuscript to his family on 3 September.
Magee's poem captures the exhilaration of flight and concludes with a sense of reaching toward the divine.
The poem goes like this………
"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
As part of his training, Magee took his Spitfire up to 33,000 feet, but, ultimately, he still had to return to the ground, pulled back by the irresistible force of gravity.
Sadly, three months after he mailed the finished poem, Magee died in a training accident.
Mankind has always longed to “slip the surly bonds of earth” and soar into the heavens, and it must be admitted that, over the last hundred years or so, enormous strides have been made in flight. From the pioneering achievements of the Wright brothers in 1903, we can now fly to the farthest parts of the globe quickly and effortlessly.
And then, of course, we have to consider the progress made in space exploration. I can still remember watching the first moon landing on TV back in 1969, and much has happened since then.
On the other hand, when you consider the immensity of space, we have to concede that we have barely scratched the surface. We are limited to a very small part of an immense universe.
By contrast, Solomon, when he was dedicating the temple of God in Jerusalem could declare, “The heaven of heavens cannot contain you!” Solomon appreciated that, compared to the limitations of finite humanity, the Creator God was infinite.
Yet this Mighty One who, in the words of the hymn writer, could “walk among the stars and call each one by name” became human. Jesus, like us, lived in a human body so that He could die for each one of us, and, in doing so, could bring forgiveness for all who would believe on Him.
John Gillespie Magee felt that he could “reach out and touch the face of God". Wonderful as that might sound, even more wonderful is the fact that the Mighty God became like us, so that we could join Him in His glorious home in heaven itself.
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory
1 Timothy 3:16
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
1 John 4:14-18
DAILY MESSAGES WITH MEANING (04/10/25)Written by STEPHEN TRESEDER
All photos courtesy of Unsplash
No comments
Post a Comment