Deureonomy 32:11
“Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, That hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions.”
The last entry addressed the topic of God’s nurturing. The Holy Spirit takes up residence within us. From this we spoke of how our spirits cry out to Him like a baby bird. His Spirits affirms and connects with us.
The next part of this passage is how He stirs up the nest. While the babies are warm and comfortable, the mother know when it’s time to fly. So the Lord orchestrates our stages of growth, as well.
He is a good parent who introduces the next step when we’re ready. Isaiah 40:11 speaks of how He gently leads us. Most lessons have a level of discomfort. Just as the baby bird is rustled out of comfort, so are we.
There are small, medium and large lessons. The smaller one are constant and are barely detectable. The medium ones get our attention and often distress us. The large ones are more rare; probably occur every few years. They are distressing and usually all we can think about. We can look back and easily recall these.
The small ones could be a slow driver impeding us. They are nothing of consequence. They can sour our mood. We should trust the Lord with our schedule. We can praise Him in all circumstances. These are the beginnings of exercising our faith.
The midsized trials are those things that are on our minds and have some level of constancy. These are the things that we ask our friends for prayer. They are phases that can last months. It may be circumstantial, relational, health, spiritual or emotionally related.
This is when we are to walk with God. Jesus says in Matthew 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.” Life is a burden. Jesus acknowledges this. But like oxen are yoked together, so He wants to walk and work together.
The large trials are tough. These raise our blood pressure. It’s not an emergency, but the alert leveled is raised. We’re at defcon 3. There are plenty of attempts to fix the issue. What makes these large is that they aren’t resolved quickly. It may be any of the ones described earlier, but longer and more intense. It’s like repairing a damaged foundation on a house. It’s major work. Our lives are changed to a degree.
There is much pain and distress. We are still walking with Christ, but our spiritual senses are disoriented. The footprints poem refers to the rough times when He carries us. These are those times. We are to still trust Him. When Jesus asked if His disciples would also leave, Peter said, “Where can we go? Only You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). The crowds left when Jesus taught some difficult truths. Our difficult times can drive us away. We need to hold on in the storm.
Lord, help us to learn and trust You when the nest is stirred.