An
Eagle Tale
Rejuvenation
God's Way
Leona
Choy
On
the wall of the great room in my home which I have named “Eagle
Summit” are two large paintings showing two contrasting eagles. One
looks shabby and disheveled, rumpled, with scruffy feathers, crooked
beak, diminished vision, and gnarled feet scarcely holding onto a
branch. The other appears youthful, strong, groomed, alert, and
gazing bright-eyed at the stars from a high mountaintop perch. Both,
however, are “senior citizen” birds!
In
the Bible God compares the person of faith to an eagle—not to a
chicken, vulture, parrot, crow, canary or turkey! The eagle is the
king of birds—stately, powerful, long-lived, and incredibly
aerodynamic. Eagles are distinct among other birds since they only
flap their wings about ten percent of flight time, not continuously.
God created them to soar rapidly and effortlessly on air currents.
By
instinct the eagle tends meticulously to its daily grooming. It
spends up to an hour each day perched quietly on a rock in the
sunshine preening and cleaning its feathers. An adult eagle passes
each of its 7,000 feathers through its mouth and breathes on it as if
steam cleaning to restore its feathers from yesterday's wear and
tear. A gland in the eagle's mouth secretes oil to weatherproof and
waterproof the feathers so it can dive into the water for fish.
In
spite of a lifetime of daily maintenance, the time does come in the
life span of this majestic bird when all its wonderful functions
begin to decrease. It faces a deteriorating aging crisis, unable to
navigate in the air as before. Its eyes become wispy and no longer
moist, its talons dull, and calcium deposits on its beak hinder it
from hunting. It can hardly squawk. It looks like the bird in the
first frame on my wall. The eagle is losing strength, and its
feathers are sparse and unkempt. It is one tired bird! (Does that
sound like anyone you know? Someone in your mirror?)
The
aging eagle could take the way of least resistance—give up, and
settle down on a canyon floor with wings drooping, dragging itself
around listlessly. But the valley is not where God means for the
eagle to spend its last days; moreover, it may not be time for its
death. When a vigorous eagle notices the bedraggled, defeated eagle
in the canyon, it screams at it and dives down to provoke the old
eagle to leave the unprotected low places where its enemies are
lurking to take advantage of its weakness. It must instead "mount
up with wings as an eagle" to a high place and go into the
rejuvenation mode that God has instinctively planned for it.
The
declining eagle is “programmed by God” to seek a high, flat rock
in direct sunlight. For two weeks it works hard to rub and scrape its
talons against the rock to sharpen them again. It knocks its blunt
beak repeatedly against the rock or a branch in order to break off
the calcium deposits until the old beak crumbles away revealing a
renewed one. If necessary, it flies headlong and painfully into a
rock to accomplish that. No pain, no gain.
During
that time, the aging eagle returns again and again to the moving
“living water” of a cool, fresh stream to drink deeply and bathe
itself to get rid of lice, parasites, and mud that has encrusted and
weighed down its feathers and hindered its flight. All the while it
is plucking out every one of its worn feathers until it is nearly
naked, undoubtedly a painful but necessary procedure. The eagle
spends much time resting quietly and warming itself in the sun. It
continues its restoration for forty days until all its new feathers
re-grow and all its functions are re-energized. The old eagle’s
eyes become clear as a young eagle's again, its talons and beak are
razor-sharp, and its normal strength has returned.
When
the eagle senses that its rejuvenation is complete, it takes off
soaring to the heights, crying loudly and triumphantly with its
revived voice and renewed capabilities and strength. Once renewed, it
is said that if compared with a young eagle, you can’t tell the
difference.
As
chronologically mature people of faith, when we too begin to feel the
burden of the years and the diminishing of our human strength, we
should follow the eagle’s example and God’s provision for our
renewal. We should come apart alone with the Lord and deal with the
unproductive, hindering things that have accumulated like barnacles
in our lives. Let's get rid of the buildup of non-essentials—“put
off” the many things that “so easily beset us” and hold us down
from flying high with the Lord. It may hurt to pluck such things out
of our lives, but our rejuvenation is worth some temporary suffering.
God's plan is to restore us to live abundantly in Christ so we can
complete the race that is set before us and finish His loving
purposes through us.
Let
us who are in our mature years not remain down on our canyon floor
having a pity party or wallowing in our depression or the declining
condition of our “earth suits,” our mortal bodies. Our canyon
floor will become a place of defeat and death. There we are
vulnerable to the wiles of the evil one who is after the ruin of our
souls. We are meant to rise to the holy mountain of the Lord’s
presence and be strengthened as long as God grants us life. Jesus
Christ has abundant restorative powers available to reinvigorate us
both spiritually and physically according to our deepest need. God’s
Word encourages us to press on the upward way to new heights to the
very end of our lives on earth. Who of us doesn’t need such
rehabilitation, not only day by day but at some milestone points in
our lives?
Does
that verse in Psalm 103:5 become meaningful now? The definition of
“rejuvenate” is to restore to youthful vigor. “The Lord
satisfies your years with good things so that YOUR YOUTH IS RENEWED
[rejuvenated] LIKE THE EAGLE.”
