Chicken Shelter (#153 of 365+)

My father, a Chief Warrant Officer in the U.S. Army, married my Korean mother in 1970. After I was born in the States we moved back to South Korea and lived away from the base in a rented house during my 2nd and
3rd grade years. One day a Korean farmer came through the neighborhood peddling the cutest baby chicks and ducks. My heart just melted at the sight of them! Apparently my mother’s heart melted too because she bought a few of the chicks as pets. She taught me how to keep them in a cardboard box with a little blanket, near our furnace, so they’d be warm. When my father came home from work he must have vehemently disagreed with my mother’s decision to keep chickens as pets because I was allowed to keep them for only one night. The very next day my mother convinced me the chicks deserved a much better home than we could offer. They needed to be free range instead of kept in a box. Besides, neither she nor I could possibly care for them like a mother hen who would teach them how to peck for food by day and gather them under her wings at night.

“I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings” (Psalm 61:4)

David knew God in a deeply personal way. He had learned from years of experience to seek God’s presence and protection like a baby chick seeks its mother’s wings. Joni said, “Oh, that you and I were like one of those chicks. Oh, that we would run without hesitation or question to find refuge in the shelter of God’s wing”. I’ve been so stubborn at times that I’ve gone for days and weeks… even months and years… ignoring God’s lifted wing. But today’s lesson teaches me that God’s compassionate heart melts at the sight of me—as though I was a tender baby chick in need of protection.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37)

Lord, thank you for your open arms that pull us in even closer when we draw near to you. May my family and I never again hesitate to run straight to you! Amen.