Flying With Eagles Today

"Bless the LORD, O my soul," declares David in  his Psalm, and do not forget all his benefits. He "redeems your life from the pit, crowns you with steadfast love and mercy and satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's youth" (Psalm 103:4-5).

I puzzled about how the eagle's youth is renewed and why this is an apt analogy. So I did a little research about the, the Bald Eagle. In 1782 the bald eagle became the national symbol of the USA.

The familiar white head and tail plumage is attained somewhere around 4-5 years. Anytime after 3 years these eagles begin to nest and raise their young. Once paired, they remain together until one dies. Eagles can live as long as 30 years.

The female at about 3 feet is slightly larger than the male. Their wingspand ranges from 6 to over 7 feet and they weigh in at 10-14 pounds with a lifting power of about 4 pounds. The eagles can fly to altitudes as high as 10,000 feet and during level flight can achieve speeds of about 30-35 mph. 

Their 7,000 feathers interlock to insulate them against the cold and protect them from rain.  Each spring and summer they molt, casting off the old and growing new feathers. The molting process is necessary to replace feathers, from head down. With new feathers the eagle's strength and ability to soar and hunt is renewed.

This annual renewal process becomes a most apt analogy to what happens when the LORD renews our strength. When you realize the power of sin in your life, your many failures to love God, your stupid worship of idols, your inability to forgive those who have hurt you and all the many other sins in your life, you are weighed down, unable to soar. You desperately need to be renewed, but how can that be? How will you ever fly again?

Then you hear the Good News—the story of what God did for you when He delivered His only Son over to judgment and death in your place. You hear that Christ's death is the price paid to reconcile you, me and the entire world to our heavenly Father. By that death he redeemed us from death. The old has gone, the new has come (2 Cor. 5:11-21). Instead of judgment and condemnation our heavenly Father has crowned us with new white feathers. We can ask for no more. We are forgiven, totally and completely. We are renewed. We are satisfied. The resurrection of His Son from the grave is the Father's guarantee to us of this reality (1 Cor. 15:20-29).

In spite of our sins on this day our youth is still renewed like the eagle's. We do not have to wait until next spring. We can go with him again today into his baptism, that baptism to which God joined us when water was poured over us in His Triune name. In Christ's baptism we died. Now we may claim his death as our own—today, and rise again, renewed and ready to fly (Romans 6:1-11). No stumbled walking today. This is a day for soaring!

And, united with him in his death, we are also absolutely certain we will be united with him in the upcoming great resurrection and complete renewal of all things. Should our bodies die today, we are unafraid. Death is merely the casting off of old feathers as we await the new feathers of eternal life. Renewed and strengthened with them we will soar on high forever. We are, after all, eagles!

The story goes that Benjamin Franklin wanted the wild turkey to be our national symbol. I'm so happy that we chose the great Bald Eagle instead. We who have Christ no longer run with the turkeys. Renewed daily, we fly with eagles.