To have an albatross tied around your neck means walking through life with a heavy burden impeding your movement and very freedom. It’s an expression that comes from sailors who witnessed the albatrosses when at sea and saw their very large size and remarkable ten-to-twelve foot wingspan. They noticed, too, that the birds fly for great lengths of time without landing, and sometimes weeks or even months in the sky with only brief rests on the surface of the waters. Albatrosses hover over the oceans’ surface and fly great distances with ease. It is thought that, like the frigate bird, they are able to sleep in flight using only half of their brain and putting to sleep the other half. They sometimes alight on ships, and they nest on rocky cliffs near the sea.

In 1798 Samuel Coleridge published his famous poem Rime of the Ancient Mariner, about a sailor who killed an albatross and suffered the fate of carrying it for the rest of his life.

Albatrosses have appeared in literature in many settings. In C.S. Lewis’ book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader , and albatross appears to Lucy bringing a message from Aslan, the Christ figure of Narnia. Lucy was on board a ship: Lucy looked along the beam of light and saw something in it. At first it looked like a cross, then. . . an airplane. . . and at last with a whirring of wings it was overhead and was an albatross. . . It called in a strong sweet voice what seemed to be words, though no one understood them. . . No one but Lucy knew that as it circled the mast it had whispered, to her, “courage, dear heart,” and the voice, she felt sure, was Aslan.

The albatross was indeed a disguise for Aslan, and led the ship away from a “death island” into a light and fruitful place.

When I learned about the albatross I couldn’t help thinking of the second verse of the book of Genesis: Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:2) It seemed to me that the albatross, far from being the ominous object of superstition, is a living embodiment of the Spirit that originally hovered where the bird now hovers. To see an albatross is to be reminded of God’s presence from creation itself. It’s to understand a relationship that He has supplied with visible evidence of His life and His creation. It can be seen in countless places on earth, and in the albatross it is startling to witness: For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made. . . (Romans 1:20)

Love in Him,

Prue