I love birds. Every kind of bird. But especially birds of prey—the big powerful birds. And no one is greater than the Eagle, my favorite. When I see a bald eagle, I always stop and give God praise that he has made this beautiful and symbolic bird. And of course, He brought that particular eagle to me, as an assurance of all he is to me. A God kiss . . .
A fable called “The Story of an Eaglet” is a great lesson on identity. It goes like this: An eagle’s egg rolls down a mountainside to a chicken farm during an earthquake. The chickens raise the eaglet, who grows up thinking he is a chicken and behaves accordingly. As the eagle ages, he sees a majestic eagle in the sky and wonders what it is. His neighbor, a chicken, tells him it’s an eagle, the king of birds. The eagle realizes he is an eagle and spreads his wings and flies away. But one day, he sees his old chicken friends down in their coop and decides to join them. As he engages in chicken behavior, he quickly forgets he is an eagle, but longs for something beyond the coop.
I have often struggled to live out of the full adoption and protection I have gained from being a child of God. And like the eaglet, many times I have returned to the ways of the chicken (flesh), with the echo of a life that is so much more. The more I learn to stay “in Christ”, the posture of fully abiding, the more I am able to walk in the purpose for which God created me, and the more clarity I have around who I really am.
I John 3:1 tells us: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” Although the scripture is clear we sometimes lose sight of our identity. The book of Philippians challenges Christians to remember their true identity as citizens of God’s kingdom, especially when faced with difficult circumstances and painful trials. When God, through Paul, encouraged us in this way, it meant that he knew it was going to be a difficult journey with many false starts and stops. No shame or condemnation in the struggle.
But he also knows that when our identity becomes secure, in abiding with Christ in the truth of scripture, we will soar like the eagles, bringing glory to the kingdom.
And that’s the mid-week memo.
Colleen
