| God
as Mother-eagle hovers at creation, carries her eaglets with
outstretched wings and renews those who are weary in this
endearing children’s song. All the images are biblical,
but have been obscured in translation for many centuries.
This song reclaims them with sensitivity and simplicity and
thus helps young children see their relationship with God
in a new light. Not only is God father, as affirmed in the
Lord’s Prayer and many other prayers; God is also mother,
as attested to in the Hebrew scriptures and by Christian mystics
since.
Children not
yet able to read can memorise the very simple refrain about
God as Mother-eagle. The older children can sing the verses,
each of which is about a different stage of growth towards
maturity. The strong active verbs make this hymn accessible
for young children.
The piano accompaniment
has dancing rhythms. Children enjoy the clapping, which
helps them to start singing the introduction and refrain
on the offbeat. The clapping also energises the piece. The
verse is story-like and finishes with a strong soaring movement.
The first words
in the introduction and refrain, ‘Strong and hovering
in the beginning’ are from the Spirit hovering (Heb.
rachaph) at the creation (Gen 1.2). A prayer identifies
this hovering being, one of very first images of God in
the Bible, as feminine: ‘be with us now, Mother-eagle
God!’ That this Spirit hovering is our Mother-eagle
God is clear from the use of rachaph concerning God,
in Deuteronomy 32.11-12, where God as the female eagle hovers
over her young. So instead of the dove image favoured through
centuries of Christian biblical interpretation, based on
the gospel accounts of Jesus’ baptism (e.g. Matt 3.16),
‘hovering’ is restored to its meaning in the original
Hebrew creation story.
Verse one has
both the nurturing, protective love of God as Mother-eagle
for her hatchlings and her desire that they reach maturity
and eventually take care of themselves out in the wider
world.
The image in
verse 2 of God as Mother-eagle carrying Jacob ‘with
outstretched wings’(Deut 32.11.12) is powerful when
understood in the context of the way the mother eagle helps
her eaglets learn to fly. In the biblical Holy Land, as
today, Golden Eagles tended to build their nests on a ledge
or in a cleft of a high cliff. As the eaglets leave their
nest for the first time, the mother eagle hovers alongside
them by beating her strong wings so that her position relative
to her young remains the same as they all descend at
about 50 km/ hr! If any eaglet is unable to use its wings
properly, the mother eagle instantly moves underneath them
and carries them ‘on her pinions’, to use the
Authorized Version. This image helps children see that God
allows them to make their mistakes, as Jacob did many times,
and also provides a ‘safety net’ when things go
wrong. A similar image
occurs in Ex.19.4, concerning the people of Israel.
Verse 3 links
the promise of the renewal of our strength when we are weak
(Is 40.31-32) to Christ, ‘our truth, our life, our
way’. The final verse is based on the last book of
the bible, the Book of Revelation, which has two passages
about eagles (Rev.12.1-6, 13-17). At a time of great danger,
when the woman described in this vision is about to give
birth, God provides and clothes her with ‘the sun’
(Rev.12.1). After she has given birth she must flee the
dragon and serpent, and God gives her eagle’s wings
to fly to a place where she can be nourished.
This song is
suitable for use in Sunday Schools, as a children’s
item in regular Sunday services, for children’s choirs
and for singing classes in primary schools. When sung by
choirs of mixed adult and children’s voices, the children’s
singing gives the song the desired quality of innocence.
©
Jane Simpson (2002)
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