I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 11th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the New Testament, in the Book of Hebrews 12:1: 

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,…”

Early this morning, before the sun came up, I went for a ride on my mountain bike on a gravel road. I had to use a little torch that I had fitted to the bike because it was still dark. As I was riding, I heard the most incredible sound. I don’t think I have ever heard it before in my life, and I am a farmer, a man of the land. I heard tens of thousands of birds singing. Now, I didn’t know where the noise was coming from. I was riding alongside a pine plantation on my neighbour’s farm. I wondered whether the noise came from there, but I had never heard that before. And as I was riding, the sun just started to peak over the beautiful surface of the world, and then I felt the Holy Spirit say to me, “Lift up your eyes and look up,” and I looked up and I saw something that really almost brought a tear to my eye. 

I saw tens of thousands of swallows flying above. The whole sky was clear but it was full of swallows and they were singing. That’s where the noise was coming from. These swallows were focused; they were flying north to their home in the Northern Hemisphere because winter is starting here in South Africa, and in Europe, the summer is starting, and they were making their way back to their summer address. Their eyes were fixed on their destiny. They were going to their new home. They tell me, I don’t know, that swallows eat on the wing, while they are flying. They sleep on the wing - they have catnaps while they are flying. They are totally focused, they are looking straight ahead to their home.  

I want to say to you, my dear friend, there are many people in Heaven, a cloud of witnesses, that are cheering you and I on, and this is what they are saying, “Be like that little swallow. Do not get distracted, don’t get pulled down by the things of this world. Do not allow the devil to rob your joy, keep your vision, keep your focus because soon, and very soon, you are going to get home.” We are going to arrive at our new destination. This is not our home, we are sojourners, pilgrims, passing through! 

Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus today, the Author and the Finisher of our faith. 

God bless you and have a wonderful day. Don’t forget the swallow, he is a good example. 
Goodbye.