Have you every heard how eagles raise their children? It's pretty phenomenal and much like I want to raise mine. In the devotional pictured above it explains that "eagles literally marry, then begin building a nest for their eaglets. After the father eagle finishes the construction on a the outside of the nest, the mother constructs the inside making it a sweet living place with leaves, soft grass and other soft treasures.
Right before the eaglets hatch the mother eagle starts plucking some of the soft feathers from her breast and smoothes the carpet of the nest so that the babies won't get poked or stuck.
Life continues and the eaglets begin to grow. Slowly, the mother eagle starts pecking away at the soft carpet and grabs up hunks with her powerful talons. She doesn't want her babies to get too comfortable. She know they must learn to stand on their own without her feathery protection.
One day the mother eagle starts acting very strange. She starts stirring up the nest and she may start pushing her "teen" eaglets gently--then harder and more directly. They cringe at the edge of the nest, mortified.
One morning Momma eagle wakes up with that look in her eyes. And then it happens. The eaglets go flying over the edge of the nest.
Only they're not flying. They're flailing those wings as panic fills their eyes.
But up above them a tiny figure is circling round and round. Just before the eaglets hit the hard earth, father or mother eagle, who can see from miles away and can fly vertically over two hundred miles per hour comes streaking down in the nick of time.
The parents will repeat this cycle, until one day the eaglets are falling for the last time. Their parent-child game suddenly turns into a life-threatening scenario. This time when the eaglets fall their parents are nowhere in sight.
Then a marvelous thing happens. Nature takes over. Those eaglet wings start moving in slow motion, as the eaglets take off flying for the first time. That's when Father Eagle peeks out from behind the clouds where he has been watching all along, and Mama Eagle smiles from wing to wing as she peers down from her nest."
Monday will be a huge de-feathering for me. I must send my child out in the open where he is not under my wing at all times. Although I think that my "nest" is the best it truly is not. God's is. He has wings of refuge and His nest is always the best. He can be with him at all times. In this devotional it says "We can give our children roots and wings, but only God can make them fly." Oh, so true.
Briggs is SO ready.
I will be too.
So as I prepare to de-feather my nest a little this week, I pray that all children spread their wings a little. Have a great first week at kindergarten!! Love you tons big guy!!
"He guarded him like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft."
Deuteronomy 32:11
