Seagulls, Turkeys and Eagles

Have you ever been to the beach and wanted to feed the seagulls?  The problem is you tear off a little crust from your sandwich and toss it to one, and ten more show up.  Toss a little more and a flock descends.  You start to wonder:  if I run out of bread, will I become the meal?

Turkeys are different.  They startle easily and run for the barn.  In the wild, they run for the hills. Of course, they’re very tasty.  Benjamin Franklin thought them majestic enough to be an emblem for our country.  I’m sorry, but Thanksgiving would be downright depressing.  There’s our national symbol lying stuffed and roasted and ready to carve up for hungry guests.

And then we have the eagles.  Our forefathers were trained in the Bible. I know there are many who want to revise our history, but truth is truth.  The only two questionable Christians are Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, so when squabbling became intense at the Constitutional Convention, good old Ben called the members to pray.

He reminded them that during the Revolutionary War, they started each session of the Congress in prayer. He suggested they should do the same now, and in fact, the members spent three days going from Christian church to Christian church in prayer. When the members came back to work, we quickly had our Constitution.

And later when Jefferson was president, Christian worship services were held in the Capitol Building, and he sent over the Marine Corp band to play hymns.  (This is the man who supposedly wanted separation of church and state? Read the letter to the Danbury Baptists. Talk about a text out of context making a pretext.)

But I’m getting off the subject: birds.  I don’t think it was by accident that our forefathers chose the eagle to be our national symbol.  They would have known Isaiah 40:31.

“Those who wait upon the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”

They were making war on the greatest power in the world of the time; the world was watching them.  What could this band of commoners do?

What troubles me about our country today is how many seagulls there are, scrambling for more.  Remember the movie “Finding Nemo”?  “Mine, mine, mine!”  And we sure have a lot of gutless turkeys running for the barn whenever hard decisions have to be made; like how to keep our country solvent so our children won’t be in soup lines…

Where are the eagles?  That’s what I want to know.  Please, God, we need us some eagles!

Don’t miss An Exclusive Personal Interview with Francine Rivers written by Ginny Dent Brant

New York Times bestselling author Francine Rivers continues to win both industry acclaim and reader loyalty around the globe. Her numerous bestsellers include A Voice in the Wind, Redeeming Love, and A Lineage of Grace.

To learn more about the author please visit  www.francinerivers.com