Last week on an island in the Outer Hebrides, the body of an eagle was discovered. It was identified as the oldest eagle to have existed in Scotland. Apparently, it was ringed as a chick on the Isle of Mull, and 22 years later found dead on the Isle of Jura. That is a long time for a bird to have lived, considering life in the wild and all that has to be combatted. 

I remember a friend going out to cut his peat on the moors, saying that as he turned a rocky prominence in his van, a startled eagle rose from the ground and took flight. As it rose up before his windscreen, its wingspan was wider than his van. 

The Lord’s people are promised that, “they that wait upon the Lord (a description of persons, and not a condition), shall mount up with wings as an eagle.” A French Protestant of the past wrote, “Christ was a worm at His birth; a lamb in His death; a lion at His resurrection, and ascended as an eagle to Heaven, and encourages us to follow Him thither.” Those who believe with all their hearts upon the death and resurrection of Christ shall mount up as eagles to that land that are very far off. Not for 22 years, but for eternity.