I have always said that if I were to be an animal, I would want to be a bird. Birds fly! And if I were to be a bird, I would want to be an Eagle, majestic and strong and at the top of the food chain!
In many, many nations and cultures around the word, both past and present, the Eagle is represented in some way. In our country the Eagle is the symbol of our highest authority, representing the Presidents of the United States. It is on our national seal and our money.
In the Word of God the Lord Himself uses the Eagle as a symbol of His great Love and protection for His people.
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on Eagles wings and brought you to Myself. Exodus 19:4
As an Eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the Lord alone led him and there was no foreign god with him. Deuteronomy 32:11
The Lord also uses the Eagle as a symbol of His judgement.
Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an Eagle against the house of the Lord because they have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My Law. Hosea 8:1
In every representation of the Eagle, all over the world, and certainly in the Word of God, the Eagle is symbolic of three things: Strength, Courage and Freedom!
Strength
The word Eagle actually means to lacerate, to jaggedly tear, to mangle. Eagles are prepared to do battle to get what they want and will stop at nothing until they have caught, mangled and devoured their prey. As we engage In battle, we must be prepared to lacerate, jaggedly tear, mangle and devour our enemy and his plan against our life!
Courage
Eagles have the Courage to Dare to be Eagles! Eagles can fly up to 10,000 feet and as fast as 35 miles per hour. They have powerful vision and can spot a rabbit from 1,000 feet that is a mile away. They can see and catch fish swimming underwater. Eagles have one vision, one purpose, one focus. Get that rabbit! We as a people of Vision, His Vision for our lives, must have one vision, one purpose and one focus! Accomplish His Will! Eagles finish what they start. Eagles do not wake up one day and say, I want to be an Elephant. No, they know who they are and what they are about and they dare to be who God made them to be, nothing more and nothing less.
Freedom
Eagles are free! There is a word in our Christian life that must be a synonym with the word Freedom. It is the word Surrender. Our Lord created Eagles to be free, by their very nature to be surrendered to His Will. They are Free because they are surrendered. When an Eagle migrates he does not flap his wings to fly the entire way. No, he finds the thermal air current and surrenders to the ride! If we desire to be free, we must surrender fully to the Will of our Father, to catch the thermal air current of His Glorious Calling and surrender to the ride!
Freedom is found when we fly to the heights only in the strength of our Lord. When we have the courage to be exactly who He created us to be. When we surrender completely all that we are to the All in All!
Eagles have the Strength to do, the Courage to be and the Freedom to Enjoy all the Lord has for their lives!!
Written by Linda Herron Cary
