A farmer one day found an injured eaglet in his field. Captured by the majestic beauty of the young bird, he took it home and cared for it. The farmer had chickens in his barnyard, and as they were the closest thing to a relative the young eagle had, he placed the wounded bird with them.
Before long the eaglet became so accustomed to the routine of the barnyard chickens that it seemed to consider itself a chicken! Following them, it scratched, clucked, drank water from a trough and even pecked in the dirt for food just like chickens.
A visiting friend of the farmer was distressed by the eagle’s behavior. “You were not made for the earth,” he said; “you were made to soar in the heavens!” But the eagle paid no attention and continued to scratch and peck in the dirt.
Finally, so frustrated by these unnatural habits, he picked it up, climbed atop a fence post and tossed the bird into the air. But the eagle just fluttered down to the ground and, landing with a clumsy thump, scurried off in search of his chicken friends.
Unwilling to give up, the man took the eagle and climbed up to the roof of his friend’s barn. Again he tossed the eagle up in the air, and again it just flapped its wings helplessly as it fell into a pile of straw on the ground. After shaking its head, the eagle, once again comfortable in familiar surroundings, began pecking at the pieces of straw.
The man left, unable to get the sight of those powerful talons caked with barnyard mud from his mind. The next day he came back and, taking the eagle with him, went to the top of a nearby mountain where the sky unfolded in a limitless expanse.
Looking into the eagle’s eyes, he cried, “You weren’t made to live like a chicken! Why stay down here when you were born for the sky?”
He held the confused eagle so that it was facing into the brilliant light of the setting sun, and then with a powerful thrust, he heaved the bird into the sky. This time as the eagle looked at the sun, he opened his wings and, catching an updraft rising from the valley below, disappeared into the heavens.
Many saints of God seem easily to forget their heavenly calling. As belonging to heaven, our occupation should be with Christ, the heavenly man. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:1212Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; (Colossians 3:12)).
Though the Lord has called us to live in the heights, many of us spend our time huddled in the barnyard, trying to find our satisfaction in things of this earth. As we look after the necessary needs of our families, finances and careers, all too often we become more like the world around us, forgetting about that glorious world to which we belong.
K. Harman (adapted)