Sitting on Briars

“…like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions” Deut. 32:11.

This beautiful analogy is one given to us as a treasure to store in our hearts. There is nothing more powerful in the air that possesses such beauty and strength as the eagle. In relation to our verse I was blessed this morning by the additional information in my Bible Study, On Mission With God, p. 70. It states that ‘When an eagle gets ready to build its nest, it finds a crag or a ledge where wild animals cannot get to it. There the eagle weaves such a large, solid nest out of sticks, branches, briars or bones that even the high, swirling winds cannot blow it down. Then it lines that nest with feathers, cloth, papers, or anything soft for comfort. The little eaglets hatch in that cozy environment…they are safe. The mother eagle knows that these eagles were not born to sit in a nest all their lives. When the time comes to fly, she reaches into the nest, pulls out all the soft down…sits the eaglets down on the briars…They begin to cry out because everywhere they turn, they get stuck.’

Sound familiar? When we get too comfortable in life God will stir our lives in a way that will challenge us to fly and will remove the comfort that has been ours in the past. There will certainly be seasons when our nest is lined with soft feathers and security and other times our nest rocks out of control. Just like the eagle hovers over its young, so does God hover over His children. He never leaves us during the times we must sit down on briars and will not allow us to stay uncomfortable one day longer than necessary. He knows that the little eaglets will not choose to remain where the discomforts lie but rather will choose to fly once the security is in place.

If we are stuck in one stage of our spiritual development we can be assured that our nest will be stirred up…we were not born to sit in a nest all of our lives.