God is like …

The Mother Eagle

Scripture reference: Isaiah 63:7-9 

baby birds

This nest of branches high on a rocky cliff is home for two small baby eagles. At first, they’re very small and helpless, just like Baby ______ who was baptized this morning. Mother Eagle is very busy finding food for them, pushing it down inside their tiny beaks and they‘re always hungry! And, at first, the wings of the baby eagles are hardly wings at all, just fuzzy little flaps, so of course they can’t fly anywhere yet, not at all like Mother Eagle who has very large strong wings with grownup feathers and can soar through  the air high and low!

Sometimes the baby eagles, as they’re growing bigger and more adventurous, make the mistake of hopping too close to the edge of the next high on the cliff. Out they tumble—and down they fall!

… And whenever that happens …

The watchful Mother Eagle spreads out her big wings and swoops down  under the falling frightened baby, catches it on her wing feathers, and carries it back to its safe place in the nest. There it stays until the baby is older and stronger and grows wing feathers, too!

God is like the Mother Eagle. He protects his children and keeps them safe, right from the time when Adam and Eve learned to live outside the beautiful garden, when Noah’s family stepped out onto Mount Ararat, when Ruth gathered the wheat, when manna from heaven fed the grumbling people, when Mary and Joseph looked for a place to stay in Bethlehem!

God watches over you and loves you every minute, and today God is here, watching over and protecting this new baby, too.

The Lord my Rock

Ancient fortress
Ancient fortress

David’s Rock, Fortress, and Deliverer

Scripture reference: Psalm 18

Can you tell me what this is? [a fort] Yes, a fort – very old, but still a very strong fort.

Ever since Noah and his family spread over the earth, people in all parts of the world have built forts.

They would build a wall out of the strongest thing they could find – logs, or big stones, or bricks, or concrete. Some of the walls were as high as the ceilings of this church – or even higher! – and lots of times the walls were so thick and so wide that you could build a house right on top of the wall – like Rahab’s house on the wall of the city of Jericho!

Those walls had to be very, very strong – because the walls stood around the houses and the streets where the people lived; they kept the people safe from all kinds of awful things: wild animals, grass fires, and especially from the attacks of enemy warriors who wanted to hurt them and steal their animals and their food, even their children. The big, heavy gates in the walls were shut and locked at night, and whenever there was trouble; and if you happened to be outside the gate, perhaps hunting on the land, you always ran as fast as you could to get inside.

The city inside the walls of the fort had everything the people needed to live and be happy – there was water to drink and food to eat. The people felt safe. They were protected; they could sing and play and go about their daily work and not be afraid. And even when they knew there was danger on the other side, they could look up at the big strong walls around their city and be thankful.

Now King David was a very powerful king with many soldiers and many horses. He knew all about walls and forts and warriors. He knew how hard enemy warriors would try to get through the walls of a city to kill and steal from the people inside.

And so that’s why King David made a song to God about forts. He called God his fortress – God was the place where he could be safe, the place where he always go and stop being afraid, no matter what happened. The time a bear tried to steal a baby lamb from his flock; the time the Anakite giant Goliath came tramping down into the valley; the time King Saul threw a spear straight at his head; and all the times his enemies had chased him through the land to kill him, God had taken care of him and made him strong. And even when he let Satan get into his heart and he forgot God – when he took Uriah’s beautiful Bethsheba; and when he tried to kill selfish Nabal after he and his men had sheared all those sheep for him, God loved David even then, and pulled him away from Satan, and made him strong again.

And that’s why David said, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,” and he loved God with all his heart.

Listen to David’s Song of Prayer by Clint Brown performing at the Judah Music Conference.