Like an Eagle

  This week we're learning about "The Father Heart of God." Yesterday our speaker, Doug Easterday, taught on something that I consider to be the most impactful lesson that I have heard so far at DTS. He talked about how studying the Bible is more than just "studying the Bible," it's about finding the meaning behind it. (Seems super obvious, I know.) As an example, he used Deuteronomy 32:11, which says, "..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." Personally, whenever I have read or heard this verse in the past, I just took it at face value. Doug, however, looked at this verse and asked himself, "why an eagle? Why, over all the other types of birds He created, does God choose to compare Himself to an eagle?" So Doug decided to research eagles! What he discovered was that 1.) a mother eagle is the best mother of all birds, 2.) baby eagles are stubborn, and 3.) baby eagles are slow learners. Seems to be adding up already! Haha. 

  Now, to break down the verse a bit so we have a better understanding. First, it says that, like an eagle, God "stirs up the nest." I didn't know anything about eagles, so just taking this at face value meant absolutely nothing to me. However, when Doug described what it meant for an eagle to stir up its nest, it immediately took a new level. When a mother eagle builds a nest for her babies, it's about one meter wide, and one meter high. She lines the inside with soft leaves and feathers for her young, and keeps them safe in this mansion of a nest. Whatever her babies need, she provides! Baby bird seems to have it made; but when it's time for baby bird to learn to fly, she completely destroys the nest! Baby bird has no idea what is going on - why in the world is mom destroying our house? She's gone crazy! Have you ever felt, either in your heart or the circumstances you're going through, that God has gone crazy? You have no idea why He's doing what He's doing in your life? You're so comfortable, why would God stir up the nest just when everything is so great? You being comfortable is exactly the reason. We don't want to just sit idle, staying right where we our in our journey with God. We want to grow in it, to be challenged! Which brings us to the second part of the verse, which says that the eagle "hovers over its young." I don't know about you, but when I think of the word "hover," I think protection, like God's watching over us, making sure that we're safe and that everything's going well. Far from it! Incase you haven't noticed, an eagle's wings are made very differently than a hummingbird's! This is something I had never put much thought into before. For an eagle to hover, it has to rapidly flap its wings, which span from 6-9 feet! It takes more energy for an eagle to hover than it does for it to fly full speed. Needless to say, there's some major wind going on around baby bird's freshly stirred nest. Do you ever feel like God's blowing some major wind in your direction, and you don't understand why? Well there are two reasons for the mother eagle to create such a wind storm, and the first is because the baby eagle's wings are not yet strong enough for flight. The first reaction of the baby eagle is to hold his wings up, straining against the wind. This is difficult for him, but in doing this, his wings are being strengthened. The second reason is because a baby eagle's feathers aren't ready for flight, but there is oil in their body that changes their baby feathers to adult feathers. This wind storm draws out that oil! When there's wind in our lives and we don't understand why God's putting us through it, He is doing it to strengthen us! He's building up the muscles in our wings, and he's helping us grow our adult feathers so we can fly! In the third part of the verse, it says that God is like an eagle "that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions." When it's time for the baby eagle to learn how to fly, momma eagle pushes him right off the branch, then swoops under and catches him. Mom does this over and over until the baby learns to fly! I found it interesting that some eagles take as little as fifteen tries to learn how to fly, while others take over five HUNDRED! Do you know what the difference is between the eagle that learns in fifteen tries and the one that takes over five hundred? It's the attitude of the baby eagle. Remember how in the beginning I said that baby eagles are stubborn? If you haven't made the connection yet, we are the baby eagle. I don't know about you, but I can be very stubborn! Which eagle do you want to be? Because God is going to keep throwing us off that branch until we decide to check our attitude, give it our best shot, spread our wings, and fly with Him. A great quote that I took from this lesson was "God is more interested in your character than your comfort." So next time God is stirring up your nest, creating a giant wind storm, or throwing you off a branch and catching you on His wings, remember that He's doing it to make you better! He is not a cruel God who just enjoys to sit back and watch us struggle, He has OUR best interest in mind! He wants to strengthen us so we can soar! 

  Needless to say, I have now seen exactly how important it is to take the time to look deeper into the meanings behind God's word. Something as simple as doing a little research on eagles can give a verse a whole new perspective!