Why Does Mama Eagle Push Junior Out of the Nest?

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Why Does Mama Eagle Push Junior Out of the Nest?

Friday, November 14, 2014
Jeff Lampl

 “But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high
on wings like eagles.” 
Isaiah 40:31 (NLT)

It all Belongs to God

“But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us!”   
1 Chronicles 29:14

The Bible uses the metaphor of an eagle to describe the life that God wants believers to experience.  It goes something like this.   In order to become an eagle, one must be born an eagle.   In Christian terms this means that once God draws a person to himself as an adopted son or daughter, that person is reborn, born again.   
That person is now a new creation, “an eagle”.  

However every eagle must be taught to fly.   The baby eagle can’t remain an eaglet, a nest dweller, forever.  Mama eagle’s task, therefore, is to push the eaglet out of the nest.  She nudges Junior off the edge of the nest, and shows him the incredible world that is “all his”, the mountains, the fresh breezes, the sun, the lakes, the majestic mountains and it’s abundance (see 1^st Chronicles above).  But suddenly she pushes Junior out of the nest!  And he tumbles helplessly toward the rocks below.   He thinks he’s going to die.  His wings are tucked tightly to his body and he’s afraid to let go, open up and trust that the wind currents will catch him.   At the last minute mama eagle swoops under the eaglet, catches him on her back, and flies him back to the nest.   This process is repeated until one day the baby eagle opens his wings and discovers that the air, the wind, can not only “catch” him, but when he “catches the wind” he can soar effortlessly.  In the bible, the Hebrew and Greek words for wind are exactly the same as for Holy Spirit.  

Consider Sunday November 23^rd, your day to commemorate your having been gently and lovingly “nudged out of the comfort of your financial nest”.    When you bring your “Blessed to be a Blessing” 2015, cards with you to worship, with the percentage of your income marked on it (anonymously), you will not be dedicating money, you will be dedicating your trust in the trustworthiness of God.   If you do so having “opened you wings”, even while it feels like your falling because your giving really does represent a risk, an act of trust which requires God to catch you, then you will have taken great step toward living by the power of the wind, by the Grace of the Holy Spirit who can carry you and who can provide for you.

But how much of my income should I give to the Lord?   In Monday’s blog I’ll give you the help for that decision that the New Testament offers.

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