I arrived home after a 2 ½ week vacation, proceeding to rake up the plethora of avocado leaves that had fallen on my yard. It’s a never-ending job. I’ve been home a couple of weeks now, and every day I have a new bag full of leaves. I am hopeful it means a bumper harvest of the best avocados anywhere on earth. I’m convinced they are, as are people I give them too when there are so many I cannot possibly eat them all. But back to that first raking event post-vacation.
Under some plants I saw this white fluffy thing hunkered down and it seemed to not move at all. So I bent down to get a closer look, reached out my hand to touch it and all of a sudden she flew up and away, protesting loudly. A live chicken was sleeping in my yard! Wow, I live in suburbia and while occasionally I have heard their wake up call and even had one neighbor’s pet hen come peck around my yard, this was something brand new. A white hen was NESTING in my yard, I soon discovered. Laying on the ground where she had dutifully, loving been sitting were 9 eggs. OH NO! I’ve scared her away and she was sitting on eggs that probably have babies inside. My heart sank as I emailed my family asking them what to do. Really, there was nothing I could do but pray she would find her way back to my yard and settle down on her babies again. Thankfully, she did. I arrived home that evening and quietly looked between the plants. There she was, laying motionless once again on those eggs.
I did an internet search to see how long that process should take. 21 days, it said, and if it began to stink in the yard I could be sure the hen was sitting on at least one rotten egg. That never happened. I didn’t try to touch her again, but I checked every morning to make sure she was there on those eggs. She was.
But then yesterday, just a week later as I was leaving for work she was not under the plants any longer. She was on the cold, hard gravel and I was worried she was sick. Why would she be laying on the gravel, all hunkered down? I bent down to talk to her, and as I spoke gently to her I again reached out my hand, ready to pet her. WRONG THING TO DO! It startled her again and up she flew, this time revealing six baby chicks that scattered in every direction as mama squawked and squawked. First, she ran around the yard trying to round them all up and then she came charging at me! She was mad, obviously, and probably scared that I would harm her brood. I ran up three stairs to my porch and assured her I was not going to harm her or her little ones. She returned to the search for the babies as I quickly left for work – again praying that she would be ok and that no harm would come to her chicks. I prayed she would find them all and gather them, once more, under her protective wings.
I don’t know then end of her story. When I came home from work that evening she was no longer nesting in my yard. Obviously she and the babies had gone to a safer place than this one where the inquisitive giant kept disturbing her. There in the gravel, where she last lay covering her babies I noticed she had pecked and scratched until she got a nice well in that rocky terrain. In the nest were still three unhatched eggs and my guess was she didn’t want to keep laying on eggs that had no babies inside when she now had six fast-growing little ones to tend. Very carefully she had recreated a place for her brood, a snug, dry, safe place under her protection and the warmth of her wings until they were big enough to live on their own.
I’m sad she and her chicks are gone, and yet I couldn’t have taken care of them. I’m gone all the time and besides, I’m sure she belonged to someone who is quite happy to have her and her little ones back home.
I’ve thought often of the verse in the Bible where Jesus stood outside Jerusalem facing the culmination of His life on this earth – His stalwart journey to the Cross. . . .“I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” Those baby chicks I saw were not new hatchlings. Obviously they had been out of those eggshells for some days by the time I saw them. They knew their mamma; they knew they were safe under her wings and they also knew how to scamper when startled by the unexpected. The image of Jesus gathering us, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings is a vision I now better understand. I’m not a country girl, and though I had a sense of what this metaphor meant, while it brought peace to my heart that my Lord cares for me just as tenderly as any great mom cares for her kids, I had never seen a hen gather her chicks before. I didn’t stick around to watch my white mama hen for fear she would peck me to death to keep me from harming her little ones, but I saw those babies under her wing, and I saw something else. In that instant I not only comprehended the tenderness, but also the fierce protection she afforded her children. In that instant I was touched to the core of my being with what it means for my God to gather me tenderly, ready to charge anyone who threatens my safety and security. It’s not just a nesting place; it’s a hiding place, a sanctuary, a fortress – those wings of the hen . . . those arms of my Savior.
“But you were not willing. . .”
That’s how Jesus’ sentence ends as He begins the journey that secured my place under His wings forever. I wonder if those babies heard the cry of their mamma and scurried towards her, or if they thought they were strong enough now to venture out on their own, to live life as they wanted. My hope is the later because I am a city girl and those babies would never endure a crossing on my busy roadways. Those babies would not survive the predators if mama wasn’t with them, guiding them, teaching them, providing sanctuary for them when needed. Of course they will not live forever under her wings – I know that. And I suppose that is where the analogy ends for me and for the children Jesus longs to gather. Another Bible verse comes to mind which embodies the bigger picture: “Jesus said: ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belong the kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 19:14
The greatest safety, security, sustenance is provided, not by my accomplishments and abilities in this world, but by His gracious, tender, strong, powerful, mighty, protective arms. All my life I am to come to Jesus as His child. He longs to gather me. What a precious assurance. A part of my mother heart understands this. When I see my own children struggling I want to bring them home and smother them with my love and protection. My longings for them can only provide temporary respite at best; my Savior’s longing, on the other hand, is always, ongoing, and eternal. Oh may I never refuse such grace!
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