STIRRING UP OUR NEST by L. A. R.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 28, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 16.

STIRRING UP OUR NEST

By L. A. R.

The Eagle Training Her Young—Thrilling Story from Actual Observation—The Impressive and Helpful Lesson

It is a very pleasant thing to us many times to settle down, to get into an easy place and stay there; but it is not progress. God of old called the children of Israel out of Egypt; and all the long, weary way through the wilderness, He did not let them settle down. He stirred them up. At the last, as Moses was about to leave them, in a final sermon to them he explained God's plan. He said:

"As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him." Deut. 32: 11, 12.

THE EAGLE TRAINING HER YOUNG

If the eagle did not stir the little birds out of the nest, they might never learn to fly, might never know their power, might never become eagles. William J. Long, in his "Fowls of the Air," tells of an eagle and her nestling that illustrate this Bible text.

He had found an eagle's nest in a tree many hundreds of feet up in the side of a mountain. One day when he came to visit the nest, he found one of the eaglets gone. The other stood on the edge of the nest, looking down fearfully into the deep abyss below, calling disconsolately the while. He seemed hungry and cross and lonesome.

As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him.

TEMPTING THE HUNGRY BIRD

Soon the mother eagle came swiftly up from the valley with food in her talons. Coming to the edge of the nest, she hovered over it a moment, so as to give the young eaglet a sight and a smell of the food she carried. He saw the food, and his appetite clamored for the morsel. Then the mother bird turned and went slowly down the valley, still holding the food, and in this way inviting the young bird to follow her if he would have it.

The eaglet called after her loudly, and several times spread his wings as if to follow. The plunge, however, was too forbidding. His heart failed him, and he settled back into the nest. Settling his head down into his shoulders and shutting his eyes, he acted as if trying to forget the fact that he was hungry. The mother was seeking to teach him that the time had come for him to use his wings. But he was afraid, and loved his nest. He hated to be stirred out of it.

FLEW OUT AND RIGHT BACK AGAIN

Soon again came the mother, and this time without food. Again she hovered over the nest and sought to get the eaglet to leave. At last she succeeded, but the clumsy little fellow only sprang up and flapped from the nest to the side of the mountain, but a few feet away. Here he sat for a few moments and looked out upon the valley below. Then he flapped back into the nest once more, and paid no further attention to all his mother's assurance that he should fly farther and learn to be an eagle indeed.

BROKE UP HIS NEST AND SET HIM ADRIFT

It was pleasant to the eaglet to stay in the nest and be fed. His mother knew there were greater possibilities for his eagle nature in learning to use his broad pinions and thus soar in the very realm of the clouds; but the little eagle was short-sighted, and was content to let well enough alone. He did not know that for him to have his own way would mean his ruination as an eagle.

Suddenly, as if grown desperate, the parent eagle rose well above the nest. It was a moment of suspense for the watcher, and he held his breath. The young bird stood on the edge of the nest, looking down at the plunge which he dared not take. There was a sharp cry behind, which made him alert, tense as a watch-spring. The next instant, the mother eagle had swooped, striking the nest at his feet, and had sent both nest and eaglet out into the air together.

DISCONCERTED AND TERRIFIED, HE HEADED DOWNWARD

He was out now into the broad expanse of the heavens itself, and he flapped wildly for life; but he was not alone. Over him, under him, beside him, the mother hovered on trained and tireless wings, calling softly to him the while to calm his fearful spirit. And then, as if disconcerted by the lance tops of the spruces, just below him, his flapping grew wilder. He fell faster and faster. Suddenly, perchance from fright, he lost his balance and tipped head downward in the air.

THE MOTHER TO HIS RESCUE

He seemed to realize that all was over now, and folded his wings to be dashed in pieces among the trees; but like a flash, the mother eagle shot beneath him. His little feet touched her shoulders, between her wings. He clutched, righted himself, rested an instant, and found his head. In a moment more she dropped like a shot from under him, leaving him to try his wings and come down alone. A handful of feathers, torn out by his claws, drifted slowly down after them.

The two birds passed from sight among the trees. A little later, through his glass, the watcher saw the eaglet resting in the top of a great pine, and the mother was feeding him.

And then the watcher thought of the saying of the wise prophet who spoke in the ages now gone, and this man watching in the wilderness of America beheld what the man of the wilderness of the Midian desert had seen when he wrote, "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord."

WILL WE BECOME CONFUSED, OR WILL WE MAKE THE FLIGHT?

There are many people that love the Lord who are apparently confused when God sends them some new revelation of duty, stirs them up out of the nest in which they have settled down so long, and commands them to make flights; and they hold back in fear and in doubt. While we are in this world, journeying through the land of Egypt to the land of God, He will stir us up, and will not leave us to ourselves. It may seem unpleasant and quite disturbing; but unless we trust ourselves out into the place of destiny, we will never come up to what God has planned for us to be. "They that wait upon the Lord . . . shall mount up with wings as eagles." They will make progress, such a progress as can be properly described by the eagle's flight. L. A. R.