A naturalist was visiting a farmer one day and was surprised to see a beautiful eagle in the farmer’s chicken coop. “Why in the world,asked the naturalist, have you got this eagle living in with the chickens?”

“Well, answered the farmer, I found him when he was little and raised him in there with the chickens. He doesn’t know any better, he thinks he is a chicken.” The naturalist was dumbfounded. The eagle was pecking the grain and drinking from the watering can. The eagle kept his eyes on the ground and strutted around in circles, looking every inch a big, over-sized chicken. “Doesn’t he ever try to spread his wings and fly out of there?” asked the naturalist. “No, said the farmer, and I doubt he ever will, he doesn’t know what it means to fly.”

“Well, said the naturalist, “let me take him out and do a few experiments with him.” The farmer agrees, but assured the naturalist that he was wasting his time. The naturalist lifted the bird to the top of the chicken coop fence and said “Fly!” He pushed the reluctant bird off the fence and it fell to the ground in a pile of dusty feathers. Next, the undaunted researcher took the ruffled chicken/eagle to the farmer’s hay loft and spread it’s wings before tossing it high in the air with the command “FLY!”

The frightened bird shrieked and fell ungraciously to the barn-yard where it resumed pecking the ground in search of it’s dinner. The naturalist again picked up the eagle and decided to give it one more chance in a more appropriate environment, away from the bad examples of chicken lifestyle. He set the docile bird on the front seat of his pickup truck next to him and headed for the highest butte in the country. After a lengthy and sweaty climb to the crest of the butte

with the bird tucked under his arm, he spoke gently to the goldenbird. “Friend, he said, you were born to soar. It is better that you die here today on the rocks below than live the rest of your life being a chicken in a pen, gawked at and out of your element.”

Having said these final words, he lifted the eagle up and once more commanded it to “FLY!” He tossed it out in space and this time, much to his relief, it opened it’s seven-foot wingspan and flew gracefully into the sky. It slowly climbed in ever higher spirals, riding unseen thermals of hot air until it disappeared into the glare of the morning sun.

The moral of the story, of course, is to not let other people define our self-worth or keep us under their limiting and oppressive influence.

We are all children of God with unimaginable potential. Our Heavenly Father knows our potential. If we first seek the kingdom of God we are promised that all things shall be added. Therefore, it is our first responsibility to discover why we are

here on earth and our ecological niche or place in which we were meant to soar. Instead of gathering chicken feed in the form of material goods or the praise of men, perhaps we should stop walking in circles,look up from the watering can, and dare to dream and make our dreams come true.

In the Book of Isaiah Ch. 41 vs. 30 & 31 the Lord says to man: Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men utterly fail: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Kirt Eure