Head-Lines

My morning devotions were so awesome and thought provoking that I just HAD to share...

{He guarded him} like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young; that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.  Deuteronomy 32:11

     "Kenneth Price shares a beautiful comparison of the Golden Eagle with a Christian's life in his book THE EAGLE CHRISTIAN.  The male and female eagles literally lock their talons and flip head over heels in love as they seal their marriage ceremony.  They then begin the business of building a nest, a virtual fortess for their future eaglets.

     The father eagle completes the building of the outside nest with large limbs and branches on the cleft of a rock, sometimes as high as a thousand feet.  The mother eagle soon settles down into the nest to cushion a sweet home, gathering leaves, grass, and other soft treasures to decorate and pad the nest.

     Just before the baby eaglets hatch, Mother Eagle begins to do a curious thing.  She starts plucking some of the downy soft feathers from her breast and smoothes them like a carpet over the floor of the nest.  She does this so that the sharp branches and twigs don't poke and stick the babies.

     Life continues and the eaglets begin to grow.  One day the mama starts pecking away at the soft, velvety carpet and then grabs up hunks with her powerful talons.  She doesn't want them to become too comfortable.  She know they must learn to stand on their own without her feathery protection.  All of a sudden, the kids start squirming and hollering, 'Ouch! Mom, those branches are hurting us!'

     Then one day, Mama Eagle starts acting very strange.  She starts stirring up the nest, and her powerful, six to ten foot span reaches all the way across the nest.  She may start pushing her 'teen' eaglets gently--then harder and more directly.  They cringe at the edge of the nest, mortified.  At times she may even hover over the nest, dangling food, enticing them closer to the edge.

     One morning Mom wakes up with that look in her eyes.  The kids cower and whisper to one another, 'Look out! Mom's on the warpath!'

     And then it happens---a kid's scariest nightmare---and the worst case of PMS they've ever seen in their mom.  Mama Eagle stirs a little too hard, and those eaglets go flying over the edge of the nest.

     Only they're not flying---they're flailing those wings as panic fills their eyes.  'We're gonna diiie!' they yell in unison as they plunge towards the ground.

     But up above them a tiny figure is circling round and round.  The eaglets see nothing but their early graves down below.  Just before the eaglets hit the hard earth, Father of Mother Eagle, who can see from miles away and can fly vertically over two hundred miles per hour, comes streaking down in the nick of time.  Huge, strong wings dip and scoop up the eaglets just before they crash land.

     The parents will repeat this cycle, until one day the eaglets are falling for the last time.  Their parent-child game suddenly turns into a life-threatening scenario.  This time when the eaglets fall, their parents are nowhere in sight.  What if they don't show up?  What if they don't come through? Has it all been a cruel joke, only to end in this horrible scene?  They can see the headlines now: Abandoned Eaglets Plunge to Their Death, Eagle Parents Arrested for Murder.  Those kids keep moving their wings, because they don't want to die prematurely.

     Then a marvelous thing happens.  Nature takes over.  Those eaglet wings start moving in slow motion, as the eaglets take off flying for the first time.  That's when Father Eagle peeks out from behind the clouds where he has been watching all along, and Mama Eagle smiles from wing to wing as she peers down from her nest.

     'Look Daddy!  the eaglets screech in unison, 'We're flying! Just like you!'

     The time comes in every mother's life when she must begin removing the 'feathers' from her child's soft nest.  Standing on their own two feet hurts, and the kids may fall numerous times as they move closer to independence.  But falling doesn't always mean failing.  Unlike the eaglets, sometimes our kids may try to leave the nest too soon.  Either way, we try to rescue and forgive as good parents do, giving them more and more freedom until the time comes when they'll leave the nest permanently.  Some kids may even get too comfy 'resting' and need a few gentle but firm pushes to leave the nest.

     Every mom wants their child to grow up just like their Father---reflecting the character of Christ.  But every child is unique.  Some of them prefer to 'test' rather than 'rest.'  Sometimes our kids reject even our most loving efforts to prepare them so they can 'fly' through life successfully on their own.

     We moms are not on this child-raising journey alone.  Mothering is a tough job, but one thing is certain. Our Heavenly Father assures us that He is always watching, ready to move at lightning speed and scoop up our children if they will let Him.  We can commit them to God's care for safekeeping.  He is a strong refuge---for us and for them.

     And His nest is always best."

"We can give our children roots and wings, but only God can make them fly."

by Rebecca Barlow Jordan