"Faith is the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1
Swallows which have never seen a foreign summer migrate toward that summer. How do they know of its existence? They have no personal memory; their parents have no words by which to tell them; how do they know to travel toward sunny skies of which they have had no experience? In other words, what is their evidence of things unseen? Would you be shocked if I said it was faith. Indeed I can give no better answer. These swallows are moved by an impulse which they cannot explain, which I cannot explain. Perhaps a magnetic influence attracts them in one direction. Perhaps the image of a summer sky is imprinted on the retina. Perhaps they move by a simple feeling of unrest. In any of these cases it is what in the spiritual world I call faith. It is an impulse beyond present experiences leading the bird to anticipate a coming experience. In the case of the swallow the truth of the impulse is proved; it lives to reach the summer to which it flies. But suppose it always died before reaching the goal, it would then be like you and me. We also have an impulse to fly beyond our environment. We are born in the winter, and in the winter we die. Yet we are ever seeking a summer we have never seen - a summer which is not here. Generation after generation pursues its flight to the unknown land of light and warmth. Each drops weary by the way; but its successor resumes the wing. It is faith's wing. No swallows have come back to tell us of the summer sky; but still we fly persistently - through cold, through dark, through storm, through rough blasts of obloquy, through chills of contempt, through hours of weakness and weariness. Is it not a most unreasonable flight?
Yes, my brother, there is no reason in it; it is higher than reason - it is instinct. In all prophetic things, trust thy faith before thy reason. Reason is against the migration of the swallows; reason is against the labors of the bee; it would be easy to demonstrate, from reason, that both were in a delusion. Yet the swallow has proved right; the bee has proved right - right by instinct. Thou, too, hast an instinct, my brother; it is called faith. Reason has taken many of thine instincts away. But she has left thee this one - the prophetic power of the swallow, the prophetic power of the bee. To thee, as to the swallow, God has given an impulse of unrest - a necessity to migrate towards skies thou hast not seen. To thee, as to the bee, God has given the impulse to seek a tabernacle of which thou hast no experience - the dwelling-place of the Most High. I hear men speak of songs of the season. Thou hast a song before the season - a song which is in vogue among the angels. There bloom in thy heart flowers that are not yet in thy ground. The bird of the air sees the storm before it comes and flies from it; thou seest the calm before it comes, and fliest to it. Faith is thine evidence of things not seen.
Ron Kenoly sings "We Will Wait" Live.
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