"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

My favorite Bible verse is Isaiah 40:31. And though the illustration I want to use today does not speak directly to the meaning of this verse, God uses the eagle to demonstrate many wonderful lessons for our lives. One that I especially like is the story of how the eagles teach their young to fly. The eagles build their nests on a high precipice to be safe from predators. When it comes time for the young eagles to learn to fly, the mother nudges the baby eagle out of the nest. The young eagle looks down at the jagged rocks below, and tries to climb back into the nest to safety, but the mother gives it a push. Down the mountainside the little eagle falls, making a few feeble flaps of its wings, heading for the sharp points of the rocks below. But just before the eagle hits the rocks, the father eagle who is waiting below, flies under the baby and swoops it up and back to the nest to safety. All the while the mother was pushing the baby out of the nest, the father eagle was waiting below, ready to rescue the baby from hitting the rocks. In the same way, our Heavenly Father is always waiting "below" to rescue us as we try our wings in life. What a comforting feeling that is when we realize that as we are learning our life's lessons, our Father is always waiting there, ready to scoop us up when we fall.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that as we go through life, though there are many times that we fall, you are always there to pick us up so that we may start over again, and in so doing, you give us the courage to try our wings again and again. We thank you for your great love for us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen

Contributed by Carol O.
Published Monday January 28, 2003
Week 9 of Liturgical Year B