Pastors Desk

I can recall as a child being in a little wooden frame church outside of Rome, Mississippi on any given Sunday morning singing to the top of my voice, “I got wings, you got wings, all God’s children got wings. When I get to heaven I’m gonna put on my wings and fly all over God’s heaven, heaven, heaven...”

Given the theology of today with its rather sophisticated philosophical bent, I wonder if such a song could avoid the condemnation of being called other-worldly or even escapist. In every world culture there is a religious idea which has to do with a flight ending in a hoped for freedom. It is certainly a powerful stream of active religious and civil consciousness in the African American experience. However, there is an important dimension of this expression often overlooked, that being the “rising above” dimension. This aspect of our culture is not so much about flying away as it is about having the tenacity, resourcefulness, and faith to rise above or take a look from a higher vantage point. There were many times in which to get a higher view of circumstances I had to rise above them rather than take flight from them.

The painting which accompanies this article was done on my return to Christ and His Church. This was after an absence which extended from the age of sixteen until the age of thirty-seven. Thus, being separated from Christ, these were years of despair, injury, and empty successes. I sought escape taking flight in the many various ways the world offers such as alcohol, ungodly excesses, and even some so-called recreational drug use. When I painted this picture I had lost all things which were of any value to me including home, family, honor, and status. I found this butterfly at the end of its life cycle lying on the sidewalk. I used it in my painting to depict a life ending and a renewed life given flight in Christ…my new life. I called the painting LORD of the Butterflies: “All God’s Children Got Wings”.

It is so true to the spirit of this work to seal it with this Scripture, “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:30, 31.

Yours in the Spirit of Love and Grace.

Please share your thoughts, insights, and prayers with me at www.greatlight.org or feel free to email me at charles.tripp@greatlight.org.

Rev. Tripp is pastor of Great Light Church.