ChristStory Bestiary

OSTRICH

Harsh or Careless Mother

The familiar image of an ostrich burying its head in the sand to avoid danger illustrates its usual place in symbolism. It represents stupidity and the reluctance to "face" or accept unavoidable truths. In the book of Isaiah, the Gentile or pagan desire to reject the truth of the goodness of God may be referred to when God says, "This beast of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen" (Is 43:20).

Because the ostrich does not sit on her eggs to incubate them, she has become the symbol of the bad or careless mother. The Bible compares her unfavorably to the motherly stork and says, "She forgets that a foot may crush them, or that a wild beast may break them. She treats her young harshly, as though they were not hers; her labor is in vain, without concern, because God deprived her of wisdom, and did not endow her with understanding" (Job 39:13-18). And yet she has her own gifts which include the ability to run faster than any horse.

In Lamentations, the people of Jerusalem are called, "cruel, like ostriches in the wilderness" because, during the siege of Jerusalem, the famine was so great that mothers ate their children rather than nursing them (Lam 4:3). In this case, the ostrich's failure to nurse her young may additionally refer to Israel's failure to nourish their children with the Law.

In spite of all this bad mothering, the ostrich lays the largest, most beautiful, and most perfect egg of all. It, above all other eggs is a symbol of the resurrection of Christ. During the Easter season, ostrich eggs were often found in churches as part of the celebration of the risen Lord.

There were many misconceptions surrounding the hatching of ostrich eggs. Some people believed the heat of the sun caused the eggs to hatch and therefore the heavenly bodies were believed to take delight in the egg and the resulting ostrich, endowing them with magical powers. Coptic monks saw in the supposed action of the sun's heat a symbol of God's grace hatching the Christian virtues within the souls of the faithful. Other people saw in the assistance of the sun's rays a reenactment of creation and made the ostrich a symbol of creation and light.

Another myth stated that each ostrich had their own personal star which warned them when it was time for the egg to hatch. Following the summons of the star, the mother ostrich would return to the egg and hatch it by staring at it. Allegorizing this myth, Christians saw the egg as a symbol of Christ, and the mother as a symbol of the straying Christian returning to God. The staring of the mother ostrich caused it to become a symbol of meditation.

During Medieval times, it was believed that the hard shells of the ostrich's eggs had to be softened with honey and the mother ostrich's own blood before the chicks could hatch. Here, the symbolists connected the honey with the sweet teachings of the Gospel and the ostrich's blood with the Savior's atoning flow. While the chick was liberated from the egg, God's children were freed from paganism and "the law of sin and death" (Rom 8:2).

Ostrich feathers were an important symbol of truth and justice in Egyptian society, possibly because all ostrich feathers were believed to be of an equal length. Pharaoh and his court used ostrich feather fans to symbolize their justice and impartiality. Maat, their goddess of justice and truth wore an ostrich feather on her head. When an Egyptian died, Maat judged their soul by weighing it in a balance against the ostrich feather.

Because the ostrich makes a wailing sound and inhabits desolate places, it has been associated with mourning and isolation. The Bible uses it to describe the utter devastation and ruin of a person or place (Job 30:29; Is 13:21; 34:13; Jer 50:39; Micah 1:8-9).

While the ostrich was considered an unclean animal and an abomination to the Israelites (Lev 11:16; Deu 14:15), in parts of Western Asia it was revered as the only bird capable of urinating. During the 17th century, the ostrich became a popular symbol of gluttony and was often pictured eating iron.

Unless otherwise stated all scripture quotes are from the NKJV Bible.