Excerpt from book Turkeys and Eagles by Peter Lord (SeedSowers, 1977)

We are all in danger of falling into the same trap that Adam and Eve fell into. They were tempted to become something they already were. The devil said, “If you eat…you will be like God.” They were already like God. Made in the image and in His likeness. They could not have been any more like God without being God. God made them as much like Him as He could.

If the evil one can keep us from knowing who and what we are in Christ Jesus – new creations, saints, the people and children of God – then he can tempt us to act, by making us want what we think we do not have. The Christian does not do in order to become. He does because he is what God has made him in Christ Jesus. (Preface)

Note: This book is a parable of an eaglet named Hagan who fell out his nest and was raised by a flock of turkeys. The following are the concluding passages from the book – a parallel of the Christian life.

“Hagen, you are an eagle!” said the wise old owl. “An eagle my friend. You are a descendent of the grandest and highest of all birds. You belong high up there in the sky above all other creatures. Go now, Sir Eagle, and soar. Soar above us all.”

A chill of glory and revelation ran up and down Hagen’s mighty wings. Instinctively, he knew who he was. All he had ever needed was for someone to tell him! At that moment, he recalled that he had often dreamed of flying high in the sky, above the turkeys, above the buzzards, with some majestic species.

“Look at yourself. You are not a turkey. You have a noble heart of an eagle. It is the turkeys who have told you that you were a buzzard and that you have become a wonderful turkey. You are neither! You need not live in the wood any longer. Go Hagan! You belong in the sky!”

It is true that an eagle does not take long at all to learn to fly once he has been set free. And at that moment, our dear friend Hagan had very definitely been set free! Hagan opened his mighty wings to their fullest, and with one tremendous sweep, he set sail into the skies. Nor was he afraid as he lifted his head and screeched a most terrible cry of strength, joy, and freedom. It was a cry of triumph like nothing else ever heard upon this earth.

Hagan circled the wood for one last view of the unnatural habitat which so long had held him. Having taken one last look, Hagan raised his head and saw in the far distance, and high above him, something grand and beautiful. Every fiber in his being called out, “Yonder is my home!” Unleashing again that terrible cry of freedom, he lifted his head, arched his wings, caught the wind, and soared toward the mountain peaks!

Often an eagle will sit on a rock and wait for a gust of wind to come by and then simply spread out his wings, cast himself out into space and let the wind carry him up and away. The Holy Spirit is like the wind. Are you willing to jump off the miserable rock you are on and depend on the Holy Wind? Human reason cannot see you through this. Your Father and Jesus Christ have said you are righteous. Will you believe Them? The Christian life is not climbing uphill against great odds to someday become holy. When you became His child, God placed you in His holiness. Behold Him. You are going to rise above the little storms of life that drive turkeys into hiding, but drive eagles into the presence of God!