mother hens vs hawks

My chicks are not totally feathered yet so I still have to watch the temperature for them. After it warmed up a little today I put them into the coop for a while so they could have some room to jump, run and take sand baths.

I sat with them for a few minutes enjoying their chickie-ness as they walked up the ramp toward their future nesting boxes and then walked back down again. Or flew off the top of the thing and landed on one of the other girls. Or pooed. Or pecked at the sand, or the food, or one another. They are curious and strange little creatures. I think I'm in love.

After a while I left and did a few things around the house. At one point I decided to check on the chicks from the garage door so I stuck my head out and looked back toward the coop. I heard them first...they were screaming! Then I noticed they were all huddled into one corner...all screaming! I took off running toward them to see what was wrong. A snake? A cat? Somebody get her head stuck in the hole of the chicken wire? Did they ALL get their heads stuck in the chicken wire? (It had happened to one of them earlier.)

My heart raced as I bounded toward the coop (and not gracefully, I might add). "Mama's coming!" My babies were panicked and I was in rescue mode. I ran harder. Just about the time I reached the coop, they saw me coming and stopped their noise, then on the other side of the coop, I saw a large hawk fly from the ground up into the tree just across the fence in our neighbor's yard. The hawk had been tormenting my chicks!

There was no way Hawky Hawkerson could have gotten into the coop to harm my chickens but the chicks didn't know it. All they knew is that a predator was after them. They knew they were in the presence of danger. They wanted the one they had come to depend upon for their food, water and warmth. They wanted their mama. They wanted the Big Chicken--they wanted me!

I didn't let them down. I took them out of the coop and back into the safety of the garage.

I've had pets before but I have to say there's something special about the cry of a youngster, even a chick-youngster, when it's in trouble. My heart pounded and I couldn't get to them fast enough. If it had been necessary to protect them, I would have taken care of Hawky with my bare hands. I wonder if that's how a real mama chicken feels when her babies are threatened.

As I was taking them back to the garage, I thought about the little cries for rescue and about the song that says, "I need you, Jesus, to come to my rescue. Where else can I go?" In essence that's where my chicks were. They needed help and they turned to the one that had been their help in all the days before today's emergency. Me. Their mama.

I also thought of the scripture where the Lord says he wanted to gather his children together as a "hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing." A mother hen wants to protect her offspring in any situation and will try to gather her chicks to hide them under her wings. There is one catch, though. They must come to her! They must be close enough to come to her. Mama Hen will not force her chicks to be protected.

Luke 13:34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!

Now I am not so naive to think that chickens work on a level of love and care as do we humans. They function on instinct and as cute and as needy as they are, they are animals. I am not. My racing heart and old legs got me to my babies as quickly as possible because of my concern for their safety and well-being.

The Lord compares himself to the mother hen. He is protective of us, his chicks. He knows there is genuine danger just outside the coop of our lives bent on harming His children and He wants us to look to him for our daily needs and our safety. He promises to surely provide it when we come and hide under the shadow of His wing. When we look to him, our protector and provider.

I've seen the hawk just outside my coop. I've been the chick screaming in the corner. I've been terrified because my life and its circumstances seemed totally out of control...and they were out of control, they were out of my control. I have panicked and wondered what in the world was going to come of the mess all around me. And I have heard the Lord call to me and bring sweet rescue to me just as he promised.

What hawk is outside your coop? Sickness, family trouble, temptation, money problems, sadness, hurt, betrayal? Run to the Lord! Run! He will rescue you. He will protect your heart and give you peace. There is no safer place in this world than under the shadow of the Almighty.

Oh dear Father! We need rescue! We...I need you! The hawk is right outside. The predator. Where else can we turn? There is no where else to go. No one else can help me like you. There is no other name by which I am saved. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your deep and total love for us and for your protective wing. I love you so very much.

Suz