Eagle - Living an overcoming life

The eagle represents to me the life of an overcoming Christian; I would like to focus on some aspects of the eagle in the air. As we look at some of these things, I believe that you too will begin to see the correlation. God wants to speak to us in so many ways, the Bible is the primary way, but God also uses preaching, teaching, prophecy, the salted word 1 of a fellow Christian. However, God also uses nature to speak to us of his ways and his great love for us.

The eagles’ eyelids close during sleep; however, for blinking they have an inner eyelid called a nictitating membrane. This membrane is translucent, so the eagle can see even while it is over the eye. The main purpose of the membrane is to keep dirt and dust off the cornea of the eye. However, there is an old legend concerning eagles that among the animals they alone can look into the sun. Thus St. Augustine translation “The sun invigorates the eyes of eagles, but injures our own.” The Bible contains many metaphors in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God” or “Carried on eagle’s wings.” 2

We will take this metaphor and apply it to the number one trait of an over comer. To overcome we have to keep our eyes on the son of God. His light may blind a hardhearted unbeliever but to the over comer our souls are flooded with light in the mist of darkness. In addition, we can take the literal use of the inner eyelid and see an over comer has to be vigilant and keep his motives pure. The membrane even while it is cleaning the eagles’ eye its translucent properties allow the eagle sight to be uninterrupted.

If you get a mental vision of an eagle faced with a danger or difficulty using his inner eyelid to shield his vision, flying directly into the sun. We can develop a couple of points from this mental picture:

• Nothing trying to attack the eagle would be able to follow the eagle in to the sun
• The eagle would gain a new perspective from looking at the sun instead of the danger

When I was a boy, my father would loan me to his brothers who were farmers during summer vacation. It was a good experience for me; it taught me a work ethic as I left the city to learn about farm life. On one of the indentured servitude, adventures I got an opportunity to help with a “Chicken House” for those of you that have never seen a chicken house it is a roofed structure approximately twelve feet wide and one hundred fifty feet long. The floor covered with wood shavings, approximately three feet from the ground running the length of the building on each side is screen wire to let the house receive ventilation. The structure housed several thousand chickens that grew from little chicks to fryers.

The point being I have some experience being around chickens. I would like to parallel the life of a chicken with the experience of a person that is not an over comer. I have always been an observer so I studied the habits of the chicken while working around them. One of the first things I noticed was if a feather got out of place on a chicken head the other chickens would peck at the feather until they pecked a hole in its head. An eagle however spends time every morning preening every feather until it is renewed I hope you get the analogy. When a thunderstorm would suddenly start, we would have to drop whatever we were doing to get to the chicken house to keep the chickens from huddling together in fear. If you left them, alone the fear would drive them together and some would smother. They would not leave their huddle of fear even to save their on life. An eagle however seems to welcome the storm. Their feathers are properly prepared water sheens off because their breath in the preening process coats their feathers with oil. I have heard of eagles diving into thunderheads to find the updraft and ride it into the heavens. Just in case, you missed it that was another point to ponder about living an overcoming life of truth. We have to decide do we want to be a chicken or an eagle?

Sources
1. 5 Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
The New King James Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1982, S. Col 4:5-6

2. http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/eagle/eagle2.html