When our granddaughter sang in church the other day, my wife and I went to both encourage her and to worship. Of course, we are prejudiced enough to greatly enjoy our granddaughter's singing, but we also were blessed with a great worship service.
The sermon that morning was given by a new face in the pulpit, since the former pastor had gone to another church; but he gave an excellent message, which included this story (source unknown).
One day a farmer found a baby bird in one of his fields about to die, and he picked it up and brought it home. Since some turkeys had just hatched, he put the little bird in with them and it grew up thinking and acting like a turkey. Sometime later, a ranger came by for a visit and noticed the strange bird eating with the turkeys. He called the farmer out and explained that the bird was not a turkey; it was an eagle. The farmer laughed at the thought and told the ranger that he was wrong, that the bird was actually a turkey.
Refusing to be put down by the farmer, the ranger decided to prove the bird was an eagle by taking it up to the highest place on the barn and dropping it. However, while flapping its wings a little on the way down, the bird fell hard on the ground, picked itself up, and went back to be with the turkeys. "See," said the farmer, "I told you it was a turkey." Not to be outdone, the farmer repeated the exercise, but with the same result.
Finally, the ranger asked to purchase the bird, and then took it to a high mountain peak where it was over 500 feet straight down. Knowing that the bird was really an eagle that thought it was a turkey, the ranger tossed the bird out over the mountainside. However, this time as the bird fell, it realized this was pretty serious, and began to spread its enormous wings. At first, it was just a little, but before the bird hit the ground, suddenly it felt the wind under its wings and began to soar up in the sky just like an eagle.
The obvious moral to this story is that if you are going to be held over a cliff and dropped, it is far better to be an eagle than a turkey.
I was so touched by this story that I had heard a long time ago but had forgotten as I remembered the words of the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament: "Do you now know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles... (Isaiah 40:28-31 NIV)."
I listened as this "man of God" listed his three points: (1) We need to stretch our wings and soar upward toward the best in life; (2) Don't be like a turkey always looking down, but rather look up and know the best is yet to come; and (3) Learn how to feel the wind of God (Jesus Christ) under your wings as you fly.
After church while we were eating dinner, our granddaughter pointed out how the church's music minister was such a great support to her when she was singing, that he was always there to "pick her up" if she missed a note or something. With a smile, my wife pointed out that he was the "wind under her wings," and that she should send him a note telling him so.
All of this made me think about the many people who had been the "wind under my wings" as I grew up and progressed throughout life. The uncle who offered me a Scout knife to stop sucking my thumb, the church deacon who invited me to teach an older adult Sunday School Class when I was still an immature teenager, the head of the English division of college who took me aside to encourage me when I was having doubts about making the grade, the church couple that felt they had no special talents but taught me how to kneel and pray to God, and the many church folks who loved me even when my sermons fell short of the glory of God.
We all are what we are today, not because we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps, but because of others who cared enough to be the "wind under our wings" while we were attempting to fly.
And, in the midst of the horrendous troubles confronting us today both at home and overseas, it is important for us to remember our roots, to remember the men and women who helped shape our country by their faith and determination that America should be the "land of God."
It is not a sin to feel the wind of God under our wings as we learn how to fly; rather, it is the willingness to know that God cares, and because He cares, we should also care enough to be the wind under someone else's wings. Don't be a turkey. Learn how to fly and to feel the power of the "wind under your wings."
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Box is the chaplain for the Bella Vista Police and Fire departments. The opinions expressed in this column don't necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.
Editorial on 08/19/2015