The Tale of the Chicken and How it Helped me Understand God

Every now and then something happens that puts things into perspective.

One of these events occurred recently on the farm.

So if you've ever had a flock of chickens, you would know you always have your favorite chicken. The one you might go out of your way to try and save.

Well the chicken in this story was my favorite. She used to let you pick her right up and would fall asleep in your arms almost instantly.

So every day I let my chickens out of their coop to free range. I keep the coop open so they can all go safely back in anytime they need. Every night at dusk they all go back in the coop together. This happens day after day, everyone dutifully follows each other into that coop where they can sleep save from predators that night.

Well the other evening my favorite chicken decided she didn't want to be like the others. She didn't want to be part of the flock. She wanted to sleep on top of the coop which opens her up to being killed by hawks and owls. I saw her trying this so I went to grab her, which normally would have been easy. However this chicken wanted to be stubborn. There is a support beam that runs down the middle of the chicken run, the fenced in outdoor portion of the coop. She decides to fly onto that and then walk like a tight rope walker all the way down the middle to where it was now impossible for me to reach her.

I tried to coax her in. Let her know she will surely be killed tonight if she doesn't listen to the 'sheperd'. But she was insistent. She thought she knew better then her caretaker. She, in her little chicken mind, knew she was right. What do I know? Why listen to me? Why go to safety?

So long story short, in the morning when it was time to let them out she was gone. No where in site. No trail of feathers. I've seen very large hawks and large owls around so I'm pretty sure some sort of bird of prey got her. All because she was stubborn and refused to listen to her master.

This made me feel sympathy for God. Aren't we often like that little chicken? We so badly want to do something. Even if it is not in our best interest we want to do it, regardless of what anyone says, even God. God tries to speak to us through the Holy Spirit. He tries to warn us. He writes His commands in scripture. But still we are stubborn. We harden our hearts and refuse to listen, often to our own peril. In this case I was the 'all knowing being' in the sense of I was their shepherd. I knew the dangers all around that could kill the chickens. They themselves had probably never seen the owls or the hawks lurking. They were oblivious to the unseen dangers. But I had seen them. I knew they were very present just waiting for one of them to mess up. I hadn't asked the chicken to do anything that would harm her. She had no reason not to trust me, but that night she chose not to. And it led to her demise. It made me think of times where I wanted something so bad. Even though looking back it was very bad for me. Maybe it was a bad relationship, maybe it was getting myself into a lot of unnecessary debt trying to get approved for something I didn't really need. Every obstacle would get in my way. All the warning signs were there. But I just thought I knew better. And each time I didn't listen to God it cost me a lot of pain.

So if this little chicken taught me anything, it was a reminder to listen closely to our Heavenly Father. He sees dangers we do not. He knows things we do not know. So listen closely to His promptings and follow His will. - Amen.