The Outer Banks of North Carolina stretch for miles and one spot along the way was where the Wright brothers chose to experiment with their first flight at Kill Devil Hill.  As we all know, they were successful, and even returned to the site years later to perfect their invention and make it safer for human travel.  Imagine what ingenuity and determination they had to dream up the idea, work with it, hold it, polish it, try it, take it apart and try it again until finally they achieved their dreams.

In a display of the brothers in the museum is a picture with a quote from Orville.  He said:  “I got more thrill out of flying before I had ever been in the air at all – while lying in bed thinking how exciting it would be to fly.”

I had to take a picture of that sign.  It spoke to me at a very deep level and I wanted to remember that thought so it might inspire me when I begin to think that things are too difficult, too insurmountable, too crazy, or too impossible.  Orville Write had more thrill THINKING about how to fly – long before he ever flew – by just THINKING about what it might be like to fly.  Perhaps there is a message here for all of us.

What kind of a thrill might we have if we could think about a world where everyone is loved and accepted; clothed and sheltered; fed and encouraged?  It sounds like a dream, but what kind of a world might that be?  Jesus was trying to teach us how to live and behave in a world like this.  He called it life in the Kingdom of God.  And, if we can dream about it and get a thrill out of the very thought of it, with grace and determination, perhaps – like the Wright brothers – we can achieve it.

Nothing happens in this world because we merely think about it.  But, if we can thrill in thinking about it and let that thrill fuel our ingenuity and creativity, collaboration and hard work, something new and seemingly miraculous can be born.  Like human flight.

We take flight so for granted these days and jet across the country and around the world, but it came about because two brothers thrilled to think about it and then acted to make it happen.

Thrill to think about a world of love and harmony – beginning right in our own families and communities.  Then, together, let us find the grace to act and make it happen.