Fly Eagle Fly

I had this really wonderful moment with God this evening and the sources of the experience came from two very different venues.  I love David Crowder's Oh How He Loves and had not listened to it this week and I am one who will listen to a song over and over and over again.  So I kept hitting repeat as I tried to convince myself of oh how He loves us (me). 

As I am repeating this beautiful song, trying to get it down in my spirit, my 8 year asked me to read his next unit reading assignment to him tonight as he was drifting off to sleep.  Usually I read one page and he reads one page but tonight I had the luxury of reading this story on my own and continued to read it aloud even past the steady breathing of my sleeping child. 

The name of the story is Fly Eagle Fly An African Tale retold by Christopher Gregorowski.  The first page of this children's story captured my attention.  It speaks of a lost calf and a farmer who searches over hillsides, through forests, and dangerous mountain cliffs to find his lost calf.  As I was reading this illustration, God spoke very clearly to me that this is how He searches for me.  If I get lost He will go High and Low, over rivers and valleys to bring me back home.  That realization alone on the first page of this story was enough to make me tear up and praise Him for loving me that much. 

But the story was not over.  The farmer did not find the calf but instead found a baby eagle who had been blown off his nest onto a mountainous cliff.  The farmer rescued the baby eagle and although he was returning home with an eagle and not his calf, on the way back to his farm he stilled called out for his lost calf (isn't that what God does...He keeps searching for us as He rescues yet another lost soul).  Thankfully the calf was safe at home when the farmer returned so then the story begins to focus on the baby eagle. 

The farmer decides to teach the eagle how to be a chicken.  Although he recognizes by telling his children that the 'eagle is the king of the birds but we shall train it to be a chicken'.  (wow haven't some of us been trained to be chickens even when others around us know we are the king of the birds). 

So all of this eagle's life he walks like an chicken, talks like an chicken and eats right along side the chickens never realizing it is an eagle.  Fortunately a neighbor becomes enthralled with this bird and commits to helping the eagle realize he was born to be and do much more than just being a chicken.  It took several trails but finally the eagle realizes its potential and soars into the sky never to be seen by chickens again. 

That is such a bad paraphrase of this story but oh how it touched me.  It was like God was saying to me I created you to be more than a chicken.  Although you walk like a chicken, talk like a chicken and eat with the chickens you were born to be an eagle.  It might take several trails for Me to get you to see your potential but I am enthralled with you and I am not giving up until you soar like the eagle you were born to be. 

Because OH HOW HE LOVES US SO...OH HOW HE LOVES US!!!!