Ours the cross, the grave the skies!

From the Manse...

Some months ago now, I was talking to someone who had just experienced indoor skydiving!

That may sound like an oxymoron – for surely skydiving has to be out in the open as you throw yourself out of a plane? Well, if you would like to have a go, you can experience all this for yourself not too far up the road from here at Airkixin in Basingstoke.

Pride of place is their 14ft (4.3m) diameter, super-smooth, super-fast and super-cool wind tunnel for indoor skydiving. Your "flight" only lasts a minute, which seems far longer, as you seek to keep yourself stable in the wind at terminal velocity (the speed at which a falling body experiences zero acceleration during free-fall). And crucially, to make sure you can get into a good position to smile for the photo. Of course, indoor skydiving is far cheaper than leaping out of a plane and has the added advantage that it is not dependent on weather conditions or the elements.

To see what this looks like, simply log on to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz0o6rXyRjM

Humanity has always been fascinated by the ability of birds to fly and has sought to emulate them in many ways in the past. Skydiving is perhaps the closest that we can get to that at this moment in time. Perhaps it is that ability to soar into the vast expanse of sky and be free that we envy and seek to experience ourselves.

In Doris Stickney's book for children, 'Water bugs and Dragonflies' the transformed water bug is able to spread its newly acquired wings and find freedom and release from that which had previously restricted it.

Sentiments echoed in Charles Wesley's great Easter hymn, "Christ the Lord is risen today!" where he proclaims;
"Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!"

May we this Eastertide know freedom and release from all that would hold us, trap us and imprison us, as we soar on wings like eagles, safe in the knowledge that death has been defeated and that we share in His victory.

Happy Easter!

With love and God Bless,

Keith