The American bald and golden eagles of our country do not carry away small children, but in a distant land a great eagle once carried off a small baby. The mother had set the little one outdoors in the sunshine. While she was busy indoors the great bird swooped silently down, grasped the little one in its great claws, and flew away. The mother came out just in time to see the eagle heading for the mountainside with her precious child in its great claws.
Frantically she called to the men nearby for help, and several of them rushed to the rescue. The eagle rose higher and higher until it reached a shelf high up on the mountainside where it had its nest, or eyrie. There it deposited the infant child.
The men raced up the slope and began to climb the steep cliffs; but in vain. One by one they dropped out of the race, afraid of the dizzy heights above, until the last man gave up.
Not so the mother of the child. When she saw the men turn back, urged on by a mother’s love to almost superhuman strength and courage, she pressed on up the dangerous heights above, nor did she stop until she finally reached the narrow shelf on which the eagle had its nest. There she found her precious babe crying, but unharmed. The great bird flew around threatening to attack, but she snatched up her child, and eventually both were safely down the mountainside. Such was the strength of a mother’s love.
We can tell you today, dear young friends, of a love which went far beyond that mother’s love for her child—a love which many waters could not quench, nor the floods drown; a love which was stronger than death (Song of Sol. 8:77Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. (Song of Solomon 8:7)). It is the love of Him who died upon the cross to redeem and rescue sinners taken captive by Satan, those about to perish in an eternal hell.
The mother risked her life for her child, but the Lord Jesus gave His for you and me. What is the answer of your heart to such love as this? Is not the Saviour worthy of your all? Well may the language of your heart be, “Lord Jesus, I take Thee as my Saviour.”
ML-03/02/1980