Eyes on Eagles

Look just above the center for an eagle watching for fish in the river below.

Because our town’s riverfront park sits at the confluence of two rivers, it’s good fishing territory for sharp-eyed bald eagles. They sit in the winter-blackened skeletons of huge shoreline trees, their white heads crowning their dark bodies.The eagle’s status (and protection) as the national bird makes a sighting a special moment. I’m glad that Benjamin Franklin failed in his 1776-1782 campaign to make the turkey the national bird. Turkeys? He argued they’re native to America, and though a bit silly, actually very courageous and smart. One researcher claims 50 different signals exist among their gobbles, clucks, cackling, yelps and purrs.

Yet the Bible accords a lot of symbolic honor to eagles. Thirty-two scripture verses refer to eagles by name, others by inference. Among them:
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. (Psalm 91:4 KJV)
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31 KJV)
Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions, The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the heights of the land… (Deuteronomy 32:11-13 NIV).

The symbolism of the Deuteronomy passage struck me when I learned something about the parenting practices of eagles. They begin building their nests (eyries) with a foundation of large sticks, thorns and odds-and-ends. Then come smaller sticks, grasses and twigs. Finally, just before the female lays her eggs, the eagles pluck their own feathers for a soft nest lining. The chicks hatch weighing just ounces. By three months, feathers have replaced their down and they’re ready for their first attempts at flying. The parent encourages its chick to try its wings by cutting back on food deliveries. The adult eagles may fly by with a yummy rabbit carcass, but not dump it in the nest for easy snacking. The parents also start throwing out the soft nest linings so the chicks find the nest increasingly uncomfortable. As the chicks continue growing, life in the nest gets crowded. Their only hope of relief is to try to fly. If they flounder on those first learning flights, a parent is right there to catch them. That’s the picture behind verse 11 (“spreads its wings to catch them”).

What a powerful analogy to human parenting! We nurture our children, and then make the nest “uncomfortable” as we nudge them toward independence. They may tumble a bit at first, but we’re not to hover forever and keep them from the rights and responsibilities of adulthood.

And what a picture of God’s amazing care for us! As we mature in the faith and step away from our immature comfort zones, He’s there to help us rise to new heights—to run and not be weary (Isaiah 40:31).

(For more eagle analogies, check out this article: http://www.ucg.org/christian-living/under-eagles-wings/ )