Under His Wings

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. …Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge.” [Psalm 91:1,3,4]

In the spring of 1977 in northern Wisconsin, several ornithologists were making an aerial survey of bald eagle nests. As they flew over one particular nest, they noticed something in the nest that didn’t look right, and they guessed that it might be a dead adult eagle.

The next day the men visited the same nest from the ground to determine what had happened. When they arrived, two adult eagles began flying around and scolding, and it was obvious that there was at least one young bird alive in the nest. Now the men were really confused – if what they saw was really a dead eagle, why were there now two living adults scolding them? Climbing the tree to get a closer look, they found an eagle that had been dead for about a month, yet a very healthy chick about five weeks old was sitting in the nest. How could this have happened?

Upon further investigation, the men discovered that lightning had struck the tree: large limbs from the tree were strewn around on the ground, and there were burn marks near the nest. The men surmised that the lightning strike had killed the mother, but by some miracle the young bird had survived. Perhaps the mother was still incubating the egg when the storm hit, or perhaps, during the fury of the storm, the mother stretched out her wings to protect her newly hatched chick. Either way, it was apparent that soon after her death, the father had been able to recruit another mate to help with the very demanding task of feeding a growing eagle.

What a perfect example of the love that Jesus has for us! The Bible, describing Jacob’s experience in the wilderness, says that the Lord led Jacob just like an eagle spreads its wings over its young (Deuteronomy 32:11). Just as God saved Jacob, He will save us: when we deserved death for our sins, Jesus was willing to spread His protective wings and take our death to save us.