My life at times indeed seems like a bird in flight. I am presently living in Salt Lake City, Utah. There are gorgeous mountains for hiking and skiing. In the heights of Mount Olympus, I watched an eagle's flight. It was beautiful, peaceful. And I thought of the scripture "I will bear you up on eagle's wings". As I have thought about my life and my family, the way that I have been raised and the experiences I have weathered; I believe I am learning the meaning of that phrase.
Let me tell you a little about how a mother eagle raises her young. She makes a nest of thorns and briars and lines it with down. As her eaglets mature, she removes some of the down
and orchestrates an interesting process. Repeatedly she will take her young upon her wings and flipping them, drop them upon the thorny nest. This may seem cruel, to allow her children to be pricked by the thorns. But eventually they learn something they did not know before; they have talons. They learn to extend and grasp with their talons and perch safely upon the thorns rather than be pricked by them.
Older eaglets are taught by their mothers to fly. They are taken once again upon her wings and flown out of their nests to several hundreds of feet in the air where they are again flipped
off of her wing. They free fall towards the earth and just before reaching the ground the mother swoops down and catches them. This surely terrifying process is repeated again and again. Each child is born skyward, only to be flung down repeatedly and retrieved at the last moment, until they gain the courage to spread their own wings. Eventually they grow brave and soar in their own directions no longer needing their mother to catch them and thus they have developed the strength
and ability to fly.
There are several scriptures that reference our Father in Heaven as an eagle: Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11; Isaiah 40:31; The hymn "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty", second
verse.
I think of the nest as our earthly home. It may be thorny but secure, nurturing... but not our final destination. We are heaven bound. Our Heavenly Father like the mother eagle teaches
His children by allowing them experiences of pain and hardship. In this way we discover and learn to use our talons of judgement, intelligence and choice. The Lord blesses us with lofty moments of inspiration and faith that approximates us to Him. But we fall repeatedly and He lets us. Early on we learn to trust Him. He won't let us splatter to our death. And eventually we learn to fly and we see the inherent power within ourselves as His children. For He bore us on "eagles wings". Yet where is the family in this analogy? I think of my family as the wind. There are times when their support is as a gentle gale both sustaining and comforting. Then there are the strong buffeting gusts that push me to greater heights and further distances. In truth, one can fly without wind. But it is lonely and exhausting. Without wind no one can soar.
I am grateful to my family who have nurtured in me faith and intelligence and courage to choose wisely and do great things in my life. I love my parents dearly for the sacrifices they have made to educate each of their children and the patience they have demonstrated time and time again. Every good parent follows in the example of HeavenlyFather, demonstrating Godly love and Mother eagle instincts to teach and suffer their children to grow up smart and strong in this world. It is painful, I assume, to have your children cling too tightly as they try to avoid the falls of life. And also painful to see them fly far from the nest in too short a time.
My hope and prayer is that each of us can learn to trust the hand of God in our lives, living joyfully, doing good, and learning also to love, appreciate, and value our families. We
may see ourselves as brazen eagles, independent and strong. But we are always children of our Fathers (Heavenly and earthly) and we depend eternally upon that bond.
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