Stretch Your Wings & Fly!

A certain man went through a forest seeking any bird of interest he may find. He caught a young eagle, brought it home and put it among his fowls and ducks and turkeys, and gave it chickens’ food to eat even though it was an eagle, the king of birds.

 Five years later a naturalist came to see him and, after passing through his garden, said: ‘That bird is an eagle, not a chicken.'”

‘Yes,’ said its owner, ‘but I have trained it to be a chicken. It is no longer an eagle, it is a chicken, even though it measures fifteen feet from tip to tip of its wings.’

 ‘No,’ said the naturalist, ‘it is an eagle still: it has the heart of an eagle, and I will make it soar high up to the heavens.'” 

‘No,’ said the owner, ‘it is a chicken, and it will never fly.’

They agreed to test it. The naturalist picked up the eagle, held it up, and said with great intensity, ‘Eagle, thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to this earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly.’

 The eagle turned this way and that, and then, looking down, saw the chickens eating their food, and down he jumped.

The owner said: ‘I told you it was a chicken.’

‘No,’ said the naturalist, ‘it is an eagle. Give it another chance tomorrow.’

So the next day he took it to the top of the house and said: ‘Eagle, thou art an eagle; stretch forth thy wings and fly.’ But again the eagle, seeing the chickens feeding, jumped down and fed with them. 

Then the owner said: ‘I told you it was a chicken.’

‘No,’ asserted the naturalist, ‘it is an eagle, and it still has the heart of an eagle; only give it one more chance, and I will make it fly tomorrow.’

The next morning he rose early and took the eagle outside the city, away from the houses, to the foot of a high mountain. The sun was just rising, gilding the top of the mountain with gold, and every crag was glistening in the joy of that beautiful morning.

He picked up the eagle and said to it: “Eagle, thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to this earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly!’

The eagle looked around and trembled as if new life were coming to it; but it did not fly. The naturalist then made it look straight at the sun. Suddenly it stretched out its wings and, with the screech of an eagle, it flew!

My friends, you are an eagle!

You may be thinking, there is no way I’m an Eagle. I’m not smart enough, strong enough, or brave enough to be an Eagle. I look in the mirror each day and I definitely see a chicken looking back at me. I don’t have any special talents. What could I possibly do that someone else couldn’t do better? 

Maybe you tried to fly once, but you crashed and fell, and now you’re afraid to try again. Maybe people have told you your whole life that you are a chicken and will never amount to much. Maybe you feel that because of your weaknesses, all you deserve in life is chicken feed.

But my friends, do not listen to those negative voices trying to keep you on the ground. Do not listen to them, whether they come from the chickens in the yard below or from your own head. No matter what anyone else says or believes, you ARE an eagle, and no amount of weaknesses, fears or insecurities can change that!

Begin today to focus your eyes on the sky instead of on the barnyard. Look to the light. Feel the wind rustling your feathers, tempting you to lift free from the earth. Can you feel the pull of breathtaking flight? Can you see yourself soaring through the sky full of power and grace?

Hold onto those feelings with all your might.

And then,

Stretch Forth Your Wings, and FLY!