...beneath your wings

Show mercy to me, my God,
more mercy than I deserve,
my soul seeks sanctuary 
hidden in you;
I nestle in the safety and shelter 
beneath your wings
while storm winds tear apart the sky.
I call out to you,
you, who know the way ahead of me.
You will clear the path 
when there is none,
when obstructions block the way.
Your free-flowing love and 
faithfulness meet me where I am.
---Psalm 57:1-3, 5 (para. laca)

There they are, on the webcam. The bald eagle couple, the most famous on-campus residents of Berry College in Rome GA. The pair have nested high in a tree on campus for some time now, and the unfolding domestic drama has lured throngs of viewers to follow the...action, if you could call it that...on their own little nest-cam. With the entirety of campus designated a wildlife sanctuary, encounters of the wild kind are not uncommon; but even at Berry, the eagle family is big news. Rumor is that construction of an on-campus football stadium has been put on hold because its site includes the nesting tree!

So, I was interested to see how the eagle's nest would fare during the recent winter storm in north Georgia. After all, eggs were in the nest, and the eagle couple had been taking turns, sitting in the nest, precious treasures closely guarded under wing. Sure enough, heavy snow covered the Rome area, and the nest-cam showed a thick blanket of white (and not much else) on the nest, high in the tree. Where were the eagles? What would be the fate of the eggs, so vulnerable in the nest? And then I looked closer. And a small hole in the snowy blanket revealed an opening just big enough for a beak, and maybe a black, darting eye piercing the otherwise unbroken expanse of white. The eagle had been there, eggs tucked safely underwing, braving the ferocity of the storm to protect a future she dreamed for her young, a future he cleared the way for by showing up, over and over.

You, my shelter and my guide, steady and loving.