Our Final Flight Series

We are gathered here today to remember and celebrate the life of George Royalty; and I want to hone in on a brief chapter of his life – one of the most memorable – which was his pursuit of aviation; a pursuit he undertook with his son. I got to meet George and talk with him a couple of times, such as at the airport cookout and a brief visit to Chris’ house; however, most of what I know comes from the stories I’ve heard Chris tell. But before we go any further, I want to open with an illustration:

“John Gillespie Magee, Jr. was an American born of missionary parents in Shanghai in 1922. His father was an American; his mother originally a British citizen. Magee returned to the States and earned a scholarship at Yale. With England’s very existence [being] threatened by the air power of the Third Reich, Magee, instead of entering Yale, joined hundreds of other American men in crossing over into Canada to join the Canadian Royal Air Force. He entered flight training when he was only 18, and by the next year he was flying combat missions over France and defensive missions against the German Luftwaffe over Britain. On September 3, 1941, Magee tested a new model of the Spitfire V, taking it to an altitude of 30,000 feet. This experience inspired [the poem] ‘High Flight’ . . . which Magee composed on the back of an envelope,”(1) and here’s what he wrote:

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth,

Of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things.

You have not dreamed of, wheeled and soared and swung,

High in the sunlit silence, hovering there;

I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung,

My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long delirious burning blue,

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,

Where never lark, or even eagle flew;

And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod,

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand and touched the face of God.(2)

That journey to flight level 3-0 (three-zero) was obviously a high point in Gillespie’s career – pun intended. You see, aviation can serve as a metaphor for life. Life is full of highs and lows; from passing your private pilot checkride, to not having a plane to fly afterwards; from the mountain top to the valley – like with George. He had just learned to fly a powered parachute, and was then hit with a stroke and hospitalized. It was also a low point for his son Chris and for George’s companion Connie. The Bible speaks to these highs and lows. Listen, as I read a passage from Isaiah 40:27-31.

27 Why do you say . . . O Israel: “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my just claim is passed over by my God?” 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, 31 but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Without going into a whole lot of detail, these words were written to a people who had just been taken captive by foreign invaders and carried off to another land. This was a low point for the people of Israel. They felt that God must not have been listening to their prayers; that perhaps He didn’t care; or that maybe He didn’t even exist – and this is how many of us feel during the low points of our life. But God is there. His ways, as the Scripture says, are often beyond understanding. So, how do we know that He’s there? Well, one thing is that He gives us the strength to carry on. God doesn’t promise that we won’t have any trials, but He does promise that He will be with us in the midst of the dark valley; and He can cause us to rise up on eagle’s wings.

We read in Psalm 103, “Bless the LORD, O my soul . . . who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies . . . so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s . . . The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy . . . For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:2, 4-5, 8, 11-12). God not only helps us in this present life; but for those who fear Him – the Bible says – He has removed their sins from them, so that one day, when they transition from this life to the next, they will mount up with wings like an eagle and soar straight into heaven.