As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: Deuteronomy 32:11
"Deuteronomy 32:11 gives a touching picture of the mother eagle teaching her young offspring to fly. She hovers over the warm, comfortable nest where the young birds have been so content and she begins to jerk at it and to tear it to pieces. She flutters her wings over the nest to try to agitate the eaglets, and she keeps on until she has them all stirred up and completely frustrated. She tears at the nest until it is so messed up, and she nips at them until they are so upset, that they are ready to get out of there.
All of a sudden, it doesn't seem nearly as desirable as it previously did! Finally, if they don't get out by themselves, she will kick them out of the nest with her powerful feet. They are so frightened and disturbed by this time they are frantic. They don't know how to fly, so they find themselves falling helplessly through space.
What does the mother eagle do to them? She swoops underneath them and catches them upon her broad back. Then she tosses them off again, and continues to repeat this procedure until they finally begin to flutter their wings and gradually learn to hold themselves aloft.
You see, the mother eagle knows that she must get her eaglets out of that nest, for if she doesn't they will never learn to fly, and they will eventually perish. Likewise God, by the sufferings and sorrows of this earthly life, is "stirring up our nest," so to speak to "teach us to fly" to our heavenly home. He sometimes has to make that nest pretty uncomfortable in order to make us willing to leave it."
(Zodhiates, Spiros. 1998. The Lord's Prayer. Second Revised edition. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers., pgs 345-346)
Woah. Makes me want to get my wings going as quickly as possible!
ReplyDeleteWow, that is a wonderful analogy/scripture.
ReplyDeleteThis morning as I was out weeding, thinning and picking fruit (we live in California), I was pondering how every part of growing our food and caring for the land correlates with preparing ourselves to meet God. Reading your recent posts about the animals makes me realize how much we miss through lack of observation and study. Thank you for sharing what you learn.
ReplyDeleteAll day yesterday I kept thinking about what a blessing Adam's cursing was. He had the best job. He was first and agriculturalist. He had to work the land, spend time amongst the growing things, pull weeds, plant flowers, harvest grain and fruit and watch over the animals. And all for just the bread gained from his sweat?! Not hardly
ReplyDeleteThe flowers offer us so much in terms of beauty, not to mention the vibrations that come from the different colors and scents the flowers put off. Then there is the medicinal properties of the soil with all the minerals that counter balance illness in the human body.
There is the benefit of daily labor that makes the body strong and prolongs a healthy life.
Then of course when the harvest comes, there is the great benefit of natural foods that coincide with the bodies needs to live and grow.
Wow, there just isn't a commandment given to us by our loving Father that doesn't bless our lives to the extreme. No wonder he wants us to grow, even if it means that we get a boot out of our comfort zone. What a journey we get to take. Thank you for your insights.