THE PARABLE OF CHARLIE EAGLE

 Vol. 1                                      Issue 11

               

He found him in a desert land,

and in a wasteland, a howling wilderness;

He encircled him, He instructed him,

He kept him in the apple of His eye.

As an eagle stirs up its nest,

Hovers over its young,

Spreading out its wings,

Taking them up,

Carrying them on its wings . . .

Deuteronomy 32:10-11

   

            

Eagles are such majestic creatures.  They soar with grace and beauty.  With a wingspan of seven feet or more, the American Bald Eagle is a most impressive sight.  Many years ago the Whirlpool Corporation aired a television commercial, featuring the actual footage of a Bald Eagle in the wild.  The commercial opened with the scene of a mountain lake. Into the scene a eagle flew low over the lake.  In an instant, the eagle reached out with his talon, and snatched a large trout from the lake.  With grace and power, the eagle soared out of sight.  The footage was breathtaking.  It was replayed in slow motion.   This eagle had spotted a trout swimming close to the surface of the water.  With skill that seasoned anglers would envy, the eagle snatched the fish from the water, and carried it to his nest .

In my mind’s eye, the eagle in the Whirlpool commercial had to be Charlie Eagle.  Charlie Eagle is the central character in a parable, I heard for the first time in the winter of 1977.  The Parable was derived from the mind of a young pastor, who observed some amazing Air Force flight tape, and recalled a verse in the Old Testament, he had never really understood. From the stage of a Campus Life gathering in Gatlinburg Tennessee, I was introduced to Charlie Eagle, and my life has never been quite the same. I have recounted this story many times over the last twenty years.  The last time I used the parable was in a speech to the graduating Fifth Grade Class of Moore Elementary School.  The parable never fails to bring smiles to the listeners as it imparts a most meaningful message about growing up Christian.  Though it is a story best heard, rather than read, perhaps you can let your imagination roam.  Think of someone you know who tells a good story.  Picture in your mind’s eye the scenes I describe.  Pretend that you are watching an old episode of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Feel the cold air, smell the spring flowers, contemplate the view from the top of a high mountain, and fly with Charlie Eagle!

High on a mountain in the state of Idaho, two eagles, having mated for life, construct their first nest. Branches from fir trees are carefully interwoven with vines, and corn stalks.  Three large jackrabbits soon become the unfortunate victims of two hungry eagles.  Carefully the eagles pull the meat and bones from the carcasses of the dead rabbits, leaving only the skins.  With the skins dangling from her talons, Momma Eagle flies to her newly constructed nest.  With care and precision, she places the skins in the nest, covering all the prickly vines and sharp sticks, making for her brood a warm and comfortable nest.

Some days later, as the sun rises in the east, Momma Eagle stands on the edge of the nest overlooking the valley and river below.  The view she enjoys must be breathtaking.  In her nest now lays three large white eggs.  Soon little eaglets will hatch.   Momma Eagle and Daddy Eagle take turns sitting on the nest, keeping the eggs warm.  While one parent tends the nest, the other hunts for food.  Eagles are wildlife’s perfect hunters. Eagles live for seventy years or more. They can fly as high as commercial jets.  Their eyes can spot objects the size of a dime in grass over a foot tall. Their talons are sharp and strong.  Eagles are agile birds, capable of in flight maneuvers that only top gun aviators perform in air shows.  Sitting atop the food chain of the wild, only man has proven to threaten the long life of an American Bald Eagle.

Eagles usually hatch no more than three eaglets per brood. After days of careful attention, Momma Eagle watches as her three eggs began to crack.  After much struggle an eaglet emerges from each egg.  Two girls and a boy.  The girls are named Mary and Sally. The boy is named Charlie.  From the moment the eaglets emerge from the egg, each demands the attention of Momma Eagle.  The eaglets are very fragile creatures, weak, featherless and unable to stand, much less fly.  They lay in the nest napping between feedings.  Momma Eagle is a most attentive mother. Either she, or Daddy Eagle, remains in the nest shielding the eaglets from wind and foul weather.  They alternate in the search for food. Now with three extra mouths to feed, their hunting is their only activity when they are away from the nest. 

For the first few weeks, the eaglets sleep and eat.  Occasionally, they try to stand up on their spindly legs.  Each has learned when Momma Eagle returns, it is time to eat.  Therefore, Momma eagle is greeted several times a day with the open mouths, and squeaks of her eaglet family.  In their first few weeks, she feeds each eaglet individually, making sure that each of her children receives the proper nourishment.  However, after the first few weeks, Momma Eagle stops the individual feedings, and simply places the meal in the center of the nest.  Charlie Eagle and his sisters are soon introduced to the concept of sibling rivalry.  In a contest known to us as “survival of the fittest”, the eaglets fight each other for each morsel of food.  Mary soon learns that the stubby thing on the side of her body that we call wings, work very well to poke and prod Charlie and Sally away from the food.  They learn that the hard things protruding from their head that we call beaks, are wonderful tools for tearing up their food as well as pecking each other on the head.

Then one day, Momma Eagle returns to the nest with portions of a newly caught mountain trout.  The eaglets jostle for the best position in the nest to receive the food.  As they fight to get to the middle of the nest, Charlie suddenly observes Momma Eagle doing something he had never seen her do before.  With the dead fish dangling from  her beak, Momma Eagle is fluttering her wings much like a small humming bird, causing her body to hover over the edge of the nest.  She flutters, and then stops, and flutters again.  While the eaglets enjoy watching Momma Eagle, they are very hungry, and soon squeak and squeal for their food.   Only when Sally begins to imitate Momma Eagle by flapping the stubs on the side of her body, do the eagles get fed.   Thus begins a new feeding routine for the eaglets. At each feeding, Momma Eagle will flutter her wings and hover over the edge of the nest.  She will give food to the eaglets, only when each of them in turn imitates her fluttering with their wings. Soon Charlie, Mary and Sally understand the routine.  When Momma Eagle returns, she finds her brood jumping up and down, fluttering their stubby wings, squealing at the top of their lungs.

As each day passes, the eaglets grow larger and larger.  They become more coordinated, and are able to hop around the nest with ease.  However, as each eaglet becomes larger, there is less and less room for the eaglets to move around.  They spend their days fighting each other for a place in the nest.  They awaken one morning to Momma Eagle stripping one half of the nest of its fur lining.  With the prickly vines and limbs exposed, Sally and Mary begin a new game, called, “Let’s throw Charlie in the pickers!”.  Soon Charlie finds himself knocked off the fur lined half of the nest.  As you would expect of any self-respecting brother, he quickly hops to the furry side, and with his stubby wings flailing about manages to shove both sisters into the pickers.  From that day forward, the eaglets seldom rest.  They struggle with each other, and fight for each morsel of food that Momma Eagle brings.  With each day, the eaglets get stronger. Soon the stubby wings began to develop to the point that they actually lift the eaglet off the nest when they flutter the wings at feeding time.

As the evening sun began to set, Charlie Eagle felt very special to receive extra attention from Momma Eagle.  For Momma Eagle had wrapped her wings around Charlie, and soon was nudging Charlie with her beak, forcing Charlie on her back.  As soon as Charlie was balanced on  Momma Eagle’s back, the large bird stretched out her wings, and soared from the nest.  Charlie Eagle, frightened by the sudden motion, gripped his mother’s back with his talons.  Slowly, Momma Eagle climbed in the warm air currents.  Charlie Eagle was airborne for the first time. What a spectacular world lay beneath Momma Eagle’s outstretched wings. In the distance was the Great Plains.  Looking the other way is the Bitterroot Mountain Range. Below him meandered a river through a mountain forest.  What a sight!  Charlie decided he could get used to flying, and relaxed his grip on Momma’s back.  At that instant, Momma Eagle performed what pilots describe as a wing over.  She banked her wings so they were perpendicular with the land below.  The result of this maneuver soon became most significant to Charlie.  With his loosened grip, and the suddenness of Momma’s movement, Charlie slipped off Momma Eagle’s  back, and found himself falling toward the valley below. At that instant, Charlie began to understand the purpose of the stubby wings on each side his body.  With all his might, he flapped the wings, and the rate of his fall slowed.   Soon, Charlie tired, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not flap his wings any longer.  He plunged toward the earth, fearing his first flight to be his last.  Then, in a spectacular show of airborne agility, Momma Eagle swoops below the falling eaglet. Timing her descent perfectly, she intercepts the falling eaglet. Charlie lands again on Momma’s back, and as she steadies her wings, Charlie grips her back with all his might.  Soon, Momma returns Charlie to the nest.   As Charlie staggers into the fur lined portion of the nest, he notices, Momma Eagle nudging Sally on her back.  “Hey, Sally, you are not going to believe what is going to happen to you!” exclaims Charlie.

Once each day, Momma Eagle takes each of the eaglets for flight training.  After each wing over, the eaglets are forced to flap their wings in a futile attempt to fly.  With each passing day, the eaglets flap their wings longer and longer.  Then one day, Mary and Sally watch as Momma Eagle returns to the nest without Charlie on her back.  They fear Momma may have been unable to catch their brother. Then in the distance, Mary notices another bird following their mother.  While there is little grace to this bird’s flight, the sister eaglets soon realize the bird to be a young eagle.  “It is Charlie, and he is flying!”, they both exclaim.  In the next several days, each of the eaglets follows Momma Eagle home.  Soon they are standing on the edge of the nest, stretching and flapping their wings. With a gentle breeze blowing from the east, Charlie, thinking himself to be finally ready, spreads his wings, and soars from the nest.

Wildlife experts have determined that within one week of this first flight from the nest, Charlie Eagle will leave his family in search of a mate, never to return again.  At that moment, God’s work will have been completed.  Charlie Eagle will be fully equipped to live, and hunt in the wild. He will soar high into the clouds.  He will sweep down on unsuspecting mountain trout.  At the moment, Charlie spreads his wings and flies alone, he became the very creature God intended him to be!

As I concluded this story to the graduating class of Fifth Graders at Moore Elementary School, their eyes were opened wide with excitement. I challenged them to remember how hard their teachers had worked to teach them some of the most important things in life.  They had been molded and shaped by their experience in elementary school. They were ready to move on to middle school, equipped with all the things necessary for them to succeed.  With a sound educational foundation, they were ready to grow into adults.  I asked them also to consider how much they were like Charlie Eagle.  It was very important for them to remember how God had a plan for them as well.  Just like their teachers, He would mold them, and shape them into the very creature He intended them to be.  I exclaimed: “I believe you can fly!   And so does God!”

In the final analysis, it is a lot easier for Charlie Eagle to learn to fly, than for us to grow up Christian.  Yet, just as God has endowed the American Bald Eagle with unique and special attributes, God intends for each of us to be a very special creature as well. We are a creature that is designed to enjoy a unique and personal relationship with our Creator. He will teach us to fly!  Attributes of love, forgiveness, faith, grace, servitude, submission, obedience and discipline, are essential to His work in our lives. As we grow closer to Him, these attributes will emerge in our lives, like the stubby wings of Charlie and his sisters.  As we trust and obey God’s direction in our lives, we will began to understand how important each attribute is.  They are the very keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.  Each attribute is available to us right now.  God is working within us to instill His thoughts and His attitudes.  It is a life long process.

 God is not finished with me yet, but, I believe that some day I will fly!