Life Coaching: When An Eagle Chases a Crow
/I saw something rather wonderful today…
Let me backtrack for just a moment…like most of the free world, I’ve been feeling my oats during the pandemic. I’ve vacillated between uncertainty and anger. I’ve dithered between fear and faith. I’ve dilly dallied with acceptance and frustration. I have danced with depression. I have eaten of the table of rage and slept in the bed of despair. As most of us have. I’m not always the perky little pinto you see before you. Trust me, I have times of struggle…
So after a night of crying and slinging snot and missing my Daddy, I decided to do something about it today. I got up and tuned my Pandora to a station plays good old fashioned hymns. If I’m gonna get out of a funk, I need solid, familiar music I grew up with from my young, wild days at Temple Baptist Church. Well, not so much wild…I was an independent, fundamentalist back in those days. The wildest we got was wearing jeans to the roller skating rink…
Anyway, I digress, as I am prone to do these days. Too much alone time, I reckon. I was looking out my back door and singing along to the music, looking up at the sky, which happens to be lovely and blue at the moment. As I looked and sang, a flock of birds (and when I say “flock,” I use that term loosely. It was a HERD) flew directly over my hose, headed away from me towards the highway. They were crows. They were booking out of here like Dale Junior at the Brickyard, if that’s still a thing. I haven’t watched an entire NASCAR race in a while…ok, I keep getting off track here…the crows were leaving—fast. I had a random thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if a dove was chasing these pesky crows out of here?” I don’t know why I even had that thought. I was thinking more metaphorically, like light chasing away darkness, the dove being a symbol of the Holy Spirit. That’s the way my mind was working at the time, and it felt right to me at that moment.
I started to move away from the door and go on about my day, but I immediately felt the urge to wait…wait and watch. I didn’t know quite what to expect or even why I was waiting. I had things to do. I had to go to the post office. I had stamps to lick. Dishes to wash. Hallmark movies to watch. In short, I had absolutely nothing else to do. I just stood there, looking at the sky. And waiting. Just as I was about to turn away, a gigantic bald eagle flew overhead, gliding like a dive bomber. He was chasing that herd (ok, FLOCK if you insist) away from the area, and he was relentless. I saw him swoop down above the field behind my house and (honestly, I am not making this up) round up the last couple of stragglers. I have never seen anything like it, but it was wonderful.
I know this may sound silly or simple, but have you ever had a moment, just one shining moment where you KNEW God was with you? When you KNEW the scenario was orchestrated just for you? I have had a few such “God winks” (ok, too much Hallmark) in my life, and I always want more. Sometimes Gd has a way of showing up when we least expect it and in ways we couldn’t possibly imagine. What did all this mean, you might ask? One of my life verses is Isaiah 40:31 - “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” That eagle probably meant nothing whatsoever to the average human. But to me, it was confirmation that the eagle was soaring. The eagle was gliding. The eagle was through with waiting. Time to mount up and take to the sky.
If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed lately, please take a few moments to just praise God for one thing—just one tiny thing in your life. We all have one thing. Just one. Look for him in the small, the meek, the humble. Look for Him in the great, the awe-inspiring, the magnificent. He is everywhere. Let Him permeate your being. It’s surprising what you’ll find.
God bless!
