I saw this meme over the weekend and it excited me. I know that sounds odd but several years ago I had a breakdown that I started calling a breakthrough. Then I started saying God had allowed me to live in a bubble for about 20 years and it popped. That's not really it though because there's no good thing about your bubble being popped. However continue reading about the mother eagle shaking up her nest so the eagles learn to fly and you will see the reason for my excitement.
One of the most fascinating stories about eagles is how the mothers build their nests. Though many of us have seen pictures of a huge eagle’s nest, most people do not know what lies beneath the seemingly soft surface.
When the mother builds it, she starts by layering the nest with thorns, rocks, branches, and other sharp materials, seemingly unsuited for a resting place. But after the base is finished, she starts lining it up with a dense padding of feathers, fur, wool, pine straw, and other, much softer materials.
It is there that she lays her eggs. It is there that her newborn chicks will start receiving the nutrition they need to grow.
But when the birds reach flying age, something very interesting happens: Mother eagle starts
“stirring up the nest.”
With her long talons, she starts bringing up the thorns and sharp rocks, exposing them to the surface, slowly moving away the comfortable feathers and wool from her babies’ nest.
In a gradual, deliberate process, mother eagle provides the necessary change in her babies’ environment, making it uncomfortable enough to prompt them to mature and move on to adulthood.
If she did not stir up its nest, the eaglets would not have the desire to fly. If the eaglets did not learn to fly, they would never learn how to soar above the storms.
What a powerful imagery!
The same process engraved in the eagle’s DNA seems to be used by God to grow our faith.
Most of the Psalms that nurture our soul in the valley were written during King David’s times of greatest distress, loneliness, grief, conviction and persecution. The apostle Paul wrote his most poignant, life-giving epistles while suffering in Rome’s dungeons. It was there that he learned to rise above his circumstances and hold on to the strength of his savior.
As I read these and so many other stories of men and women who have left a mark in God’s kingdom and in history because of their trials, and I reflect on the mother eagle stirring the nest, this truth echoes in my heart:
There is a time to be nurtured, a time to be fed, protected and safe. But when God allows rocky circumstances to disturb our peace, there’s no question about it – it’s because He knows He designed us to soar.
So now as I look behind at my shaken and stirred nest and the times my feathers have been ruffled (believe me, there were many times my feathers were ruffled) I can see where it fits into preparing me for my work for the Lord. It wasn't fun and it is still a little scary but to look forward to that glide when an eagles wings hit the wind just right is exciting and very fulfilling. So when you hit a patch of stirring to your nest start looking for the soar to come.
Live loved y'all
Margie
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