Wesleyan Life - Spring 2009 Back to Wesleyan Life Home

Living Like an Eagle

By Tammy Darling

The eagle is used throughout the Bible as a simile (a simile compares two dissimilar things). There are many interesting facts about eagles that can be compared with our Christian walk.

Eagles are always looking up.

As Christians, we should always be looking upward—not behind (the past); not around us (the world); and not even in front of us (present circumstances). And while animals run for cover in a storm, an eagle uses the storm to lift it to a higher place. When an eagle senses a storm, it doesn’t think of just surviving—it thinks of overcoming.

Use the storms of life to your advantage (James 1:2–4).

Eagles are experts at waiting.

Crows often pester eagles, knowing eagles are unable to turn quickly to do anything about it. The crow will attack from behind or get on the eagle’s back. The eagle will simply wait until the thermal currents come by. Then the eagle leaps to the current and continues to go higher and higher until it gets to an altitude in which the pesky crow cannot breathe.

Live in the current of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).

Eagles have exceptional eyesight.

An eagle can spot prey two miles away. The higher the eagle flies, the better its vision becomes. The higher we go with Christ, the better we’ll see what we need to see. Sometimes we don’t see clearly enough simply because we’re not living high enough.

Learn to see through Christ’s eyes (Ephesians 1:18).

Old and worn eagles renew themselves.

An eagle will get high on the rocks and pluck out all of its feathers, one by one. Considering a sizeable eagle can have about 7,000 feathers, this can take some time (as well as being painful). But the eagle is not as concerned about the pain as it is the process.

Make the situation a part of the perfection process (2 Corinthians 7:1).

— Tammy Darling lives in Three Springs, PA, and is a freelance writer.

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