What is Florida?

I told a friend recently that I'd moved back to the south. She said, "You didn't move back to the South; you moved to Florida." I disagreed with her a little. Florida has its share of "southernness". Hey, I get to hear a southern accent on occasion, and feel amazed at strange things like steer horns glued to the top of a truck cab (really?). But what is Florida? Is it a province of Canada? I heard that there were so many Canadian retirees down here that there used to be a branch of the Canadian government pension fund in Florida. Is it a county in New York? I can't tell you how many people I run into here that are from New York. Even people that immigrate from other countries did time in New York. I was talking to a man last night who was discussing quite wistfully his youth in Guyana, and then he said, as an aside, that he lived in New York for fourteen years before he moved here. Is Florida Latin America? I read an argument that Miami should be classed as a Latin American city. Then there is the strange fact that for the Seventh-day Adventist church the Inter-American Division, which covers countries like Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico, is headquartered in Miami.

I'm not sure how Florida can be classified, but I confess, it is growing on me. It's a large, unique state, and for now I'm calling it home even if I am from California.

Eagle's Wings

I stumbled upon this quote today while reading Andrew Murray's Waiting on God. It must be shared!

"Yes, 'they shall mount up with wings as eagles.' You know what eagles' wings mean. The eagle is the king of birds, it soars the highest into the Heavens. Believers are to live a heavenly life, in the very presence and love and joy of God. They are to live where God lives; they need God's strength to rise there. To them that wait on Him it shall be given.

You know how the eagles' wings are obtained. Only in one way–by the eagle birth.
You are born of God. You have the eagles' wings. You may not have known it; you may not have used them; but God can and will teach you to use them.

You know how the eagles are taught the use of their wings. See yonder cliff rising a thousand feet out of the sea. See high up a ledge on the rock, where there is an eagle's nest with it treasure of two young eaglets. See the mother bird come and stirs up her nest, and with her beak push the timid birds over the precipice. See how they flutter and fall and sink toward the depth. See now how she 'fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings'(Deut. 32:11), and so, as they ride upon her wings, brings them to a place of safety. And so she does once and again, each time casting them out over the precipice, and then again taking and carrying them. 'So the Lord alone did lead him.' Yes, the instinct of that eagle mother was God's gift, a single ray of that love in which the Almighty trains His people to mount as on eagles' wings.

He stirs up your nest. He disappoints your hopes. He brings down your confidence. He makes you fear and tremble, as all your strength fails, and you feel utterly weary and helpless. And all the while He is spreading His strong wings for you to rest your weakness on, and offering His everlasting Creator-strength to work in you. And all He asks is that you should sink down in your weariness and wait on Him; and allow Him in his Jehoavah-strength to carry as you ride upon the wings His omnipotence.

Dear child of God, I pray you, lift up your eyes, and behold your God! Listen to Him who says that He "fainteth not, neither is weary," who promises that you too shall not faint or be weary, who asks nought but this one thing, that you should wait on Him. And let your answer be, With such a God, so mighty, so faithful, so tender,
My soul, wait thou only upon God!

from Waiting on God by Andrew Murray, p. 92,93