The Eagle Story

Remembered by Bobby McLeod; as told to her at a Canadian Baptist Women's Conference, by a missionary.

Eagles mate for life. They are found nearly everywhere in the world.

They build their nest together using the most prickly of branches and twigs and the nest which is deep, is usually a yard (or metre) wide with a broad rim around it. When completed the female pulls off all her down and lines the nest with it, making it a gentle cradle for her eggs. Both of the parents attend the eggs and after a natural time the eggs hatch into the downy nest.

Then the work really begins as now they have not only themselves to feed but the voracious chicks which are never full. The chicks grow rapidly.

The time comes when the nest is nearly too full of the chicks and they begin to hop onto the ledge and walk around. Soon they are all walking on the ledge and the time is drawing near for them to learn to fly. The mama eagle goes into the nest and removes any of the remaining down and the cozy home disappears, to be replaced by the prickly sticks.

Then the parents begin to push the chicks off the ledge. At first, the chicks just tumble down but one of the parents fly under and catch the small bird on their wings and return it to the ledge. Over and over again this happens; push off, fall, catch, bring back. They do it until the babies learn to fly and land on the rim of the nest. However, the job is not over for the parents, they must continue to feed the young birds and at the same time teach them to hunt. It takes a long summer before the young birds finally fly off and find an area of their own.

By this time, both adults are worn out. Their tail feathers are tattered, they are missing some of their pin feathers, and they can no longer soar like before. Their beaks are worn down and they have little or no flesh on their bodies but their parenting job is over for this season.

At this point, each of them goes to find a crevice in the hill and they back into it and lay down to wait.

Bit by bit the beak, the feathers, the down grow back and they can again fly and hunt, if that is the season of their life - ready to meet up and do it all again next spring.

Sometimes, there will be no 'new' spring but rather an aging. A time to just be until their life is over.

This should not be considered a sadness but rather a completion.

There are several points to be learned from this story of reality - and even this story has the Creator God in it. The eagles do not know how to praise God as we do, however they never falter in their God given life to complete what they were put on earth to do.
So it should be with us.