The Eagle Blog

I figured that I should get this blog written up and posted while it's still fresh in my head...

For a good chunk of my life, my dad doubled as my pastor. And for reasons I can't clearly recall, he always gravitated to biblical and societal references to eagles. He recited Isaiah 40:28-31 as his prologue before every sermon and he often told the story about "The Eagle and the Chicken". Well, I couldn't help but recall this popular anecdotal story while talking/preaching to the eldest kid this past week. Humble apologies -- I added some personal touches to the original story:

Some time ago, an eaglet fell from his nest and was rescued by a chicken farmer. The farmer placed the baby eagle in his chicken coop and raised it alongside his many chickens. The eagle grew up as a chicken, doing what chickens do, believing he was a chicken.

One day, a stranger was passing by and stopped when he saw a grown eagle living in a chicken coop, pecking seeds from the ground with the other chickens. The farmer explained to the man that the eagle was no longer an eagle since it had been raised as a chicken. The man lifted the eagle onto the fence and urged the great bird to fly and take its rightful place in the clouds. The bird first looked up but then hopped back down to the ground to be with the other chickens.

The man asked the farmer if he could take the bird on a short trip. He placed the bird in a cage and placed the cage on the back of his truck. He proceeded to drive up to one of the highest points in the mountains. He took the eagle out of the truck and held it high for the bird to see the great sights. After a few moments, the man released the bird over a cliff and still thinking as a chicken, the bird flailed its wings and began to fall. Almost by instinct, the bird extended its wings, felt the lift from the air and began to soar. While flying high in the clouds, the eagle realized that he had great vision and looked over a great distance to see the chicken coop he used to call home. He knew that he was in a place now where few birds could fly and from that point on, he would never be able to return to living life on the ground.

Needless to say, this story speaks for itself. Time will surely tell if my teenager really understood the message in this great story.