Freed To Soar! by Ken Williams
Isaiah 40:31 “…but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (NRSV)
June 2005, Anchorage Alaska: Two friends and I went for a noon day walk and came upon a veterinarian tending a caged male bald eagle. Two months earlier a ranger discovered the starving bird trapped in a bear trap 200 miles north of Anchorage. A pilot flew him in to the vet who would save his life. The eagle had suffered a serious injury but was now healed and strong enough to be released. We were privileged to witness the beauty and grandeur of the freed eagle opening his wings and soaring.
The vet risked injury in releasing this large wild eagle. He had been caged for two months and appeared docile, but this was not someone’s tamed pet. The vet dressed appropriately with a heavy, denim coat and thick leather gloves that covered his hands and forearms. It was mid-June, and he was overdressed for one of the longest, hottest days of the year, but, if he were too warm, he didn’t show it. He proceeded to open the cage door and we backed up a couple steps to observe from a safer distance. We hadn’t seen anything yet!
The uncaged eagle appeared to be 3 feet long, the size of the largest males. The vet turned the bird’s back to his body, gripped its talons in his right hand, arm extended downward toward his knees. He held the bird’s head in his left hand, with beak sticking out between his fingers. Stretched out the bird’s head was next to the vet’s face. We could see that the right foot had healed after being trapped while he attempted to retrieve the bait off the trap trigger and after the vet amputated his right front toe. So, here he was, held firmly, about to be released, and yet he still appeared dull and motionless.
My friends and I joined the vet in climbing to the crest of a small hill. After announcing he was going to launch the eagle, he removed his left hand from the bird’s head to his breast and launched him off the hill with his right arm. We watched him open his 6 feet span of wings but he glided to the bottom of the hill. We exclaimed, “What’s wrong?” “Is he still injured?” “Why didn’t he fly?” The impact of the vet’s response inspires me to this day. He said, “He’s okay. He’s been in captivity for two months and needs to figure out that he’s free!”
We looked down to see him for the last time. He stood upright, tilted his head in the way eagles do, and realized he was no longer in a cage. He was figuring out he was free! He opened his wings, and with powerful thrusts moved dust and air and became airborne. On his way up he caught an updraft that lifted him far above us. I gaped in amazement until my neck ached from the strain of looking straight up at a soaring bald eagle. The vet said he would be back home 200 miles to the north in a couple hours.
Remembering this experience reminds me that I was once a “caged eagle”, and I share this story with others who have lost their freedom to be the people God created us to be. I share with them my youthful fantasies and how I was seduced to trade my freedom for the “bait” placed on the trigger of a trap. Jesus said everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. Like the caged bald eagle, I became listless, dull, and lonely, unable to become the man God created me to be. An Alaskan ranger found and saved the dying bald eagle, and Jesus found and saved me. An Anchorage based veterinarian cared for and freed the eagle, Jesus healed and freed me to become what he intended.
The veterinarian’s words, “He’s okay. He’s been in captivity for two months and needs to figure out that he’s free!” still moves me to tears of joy. It took me longer to figure out I was free in Jesus Christ than it took the eagle to figure out he was no longer caged. In time God helped me accept my freedom in Christ. “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36 NRSV). Like the bald eagle, God created all of us, to be unique and free in Christ to participate in living and sharing the Father’s heart. All people live to glory in being God’s hand-crafted creatures, rejoicing in freedom and to soar.
Ken and Nancy Williams served for some 25 years in pastoral ministry, and then almost another 20 years serving and mentoring other pastors. With the heart of a pastor Ken continues to write and blog from upstate New York where he and Nancy live close to their grandchildren.
Plain Truth Ministries | Box 300 | Pasadena, CA 91129-0300
