“As an eagle stirs up its nest,
Hovers over its young,
Spreading out its wings, taking them up,
Carrying them on its wings…”     DT 32:11

I have had this wonderful fascination with the animal kingdom since the time I was a little boy. Thanks to parents who were raised on farms, and who understood the rich imagination little boys can have (I was the youngest of four), we always had an array of creeping, squawking, barking, and furry things around to keep us entertained. Curt, the Doolittle among us, had nearly memorized the entire nature encyclopedia of facts about every creature under heaven. We never missed Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, and Jacques Cousteau was like a family to us!

There was the mouse that escaped and of all the places he found to hide, he chose my mother’s slipper. There was Matilda, the waltzing hen, who followed the mailman on his route and came a clucking when she was called, especially when a Ritz cracker was in the offering. There was Lucy the goose who made it onto the local newspaper and TV news in her short lifetime. Curt saved Wilber the rat from a science experiment’s inevitable fate, only to continue to bring it back to school for weeks in his sleeve, on his neck, or occasionally on his head. Sure we had the more typical offerings as well: dogs and cats and fish and bunnies. But not everyone in the neighborhood kept iguanas, or skunks, or 30-pound snapping turtles! Some people wonder if their neighbors talk about them. We never did—wonder, I mean.

Even here in our Asian, urban jungles, animals continue to play a role in my life. Some of the 500 turkeys we raised on our China farm made their way to our balcony, and we raised days-old kids (goats) fed from a bottle. This past week we spied a three foot monitor lizard during a hike, caught and brought home a seahorse from the beach, and prayed for a blind, sick, doomed pet turtle only to see it healed and its blind eyes opened overnight. During the school holidays what is the favorite thing for the younger kids to watch? You guessed it. Its shocking the things that Jeremy, Daniel, and even Charlotte know about a huge array of God’s amazing forest, jungle, savannah, or ocean creatures.

If God had not called me to be a missionary, I would have enjoyed being an ornithologist. I just love birds most of all. I can’t even walk by a fallen feather without collecting it for further observation, and worship. The design, the engineering, the intricacy, the array and combination of colors…wow. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why this verse in Deuteronomy grabs my attention. I mean, God Himself compares His care for Israel in bringing them out of Egypt and back to the Promised Land to an eagle’s care for its chicks. Follow me as a muse a bit about this.

First of all, I can’t help but wonder how Moses was able to describe in such detail this intimate encounter of a mother eagle with her young. He didn’t get it from National Geographic! Neither had the Audubon Society been formed back in 1440 BC. Eagles nests are in the crags and cliffs of high mountains. Do you suppose he observed and then got this revelation during those 80 days in the Presence on Sinai? Few have had the privilege to see this even to this day.

Wherever, however it happened, Moses did not have the benefit of a telephoto lens. And yet the image was sharp. The stirring of the nest, making sure there were no sharp objects, no bugs, no signs of a breach. Hovering over the young; was it to fan them, or just to let the eaglets see the expanse of the protection, and imposing strength of the protector. Landing gently on the nest’s brim, she then kept those wings stretched to shelter, cover, and comfort. The Hebrew word here can also mean to nestle, or to cherish.

One by one, she would them take them up. It gets very personal at this point. This is the first stage in learning how to fly, when the rhythmic flapping wings of the parent actually lift the eaglet off the nest momentarily. It will soon be flying on its own strength, but when it actually gets up the courage to leave the nest it will quickly lose strength only to be caught and then carried by the parent eagle back to a safe place or to a new height where it can start over again. The process, courage, catching, and carrying, repeats itself until the eaglet can capture its own food and master its own takeoff, crossing its own Jordan on the way to its own Canaan.

When I was praying for Anna during her medical board exams in the wee hours of the night on Saturday the picture of being carried on eagle’s wings came suddenly and vividly into my mind. How wonderful to know, that the same God who covered and carried the Israelites, nurturing and providing for them to escape their predators, through the wilderness, raining down the quail and the manna, was there to take care of Anna.

He will be there for you as well. For as fascinating, frenetic, and fun as all those squawkers and squeakers are, they were afterall made for His pleasure, and for us to enjoy. Yes, as amazing as they are, you are the crowning act of His creation. As mesmerizing a peacock’s fan, or the Maldivian reef dwellers may be, you alone bear the image of the Beautiful One. While they each have their stories to tell, and lessons to teach us, it is only through you and I that His glory will be shown in all its splendor.