I am blessed to have been raised on a farm with a menagerie of animals. My childhood memories are woven amongst the many pets and farm animals that shared our lives and home. We had horses, cattle, cats, dogs, pigs, chooks, ducks, goats, geese, guinea fowl, budgies, finches, fish, quail and sheep at one time or another. As well as the constant trickle of native animals we would care for if injured, or keep for a short time to enjoy their company. I remember my dad enclosing the bottom of a tank stand and putting a pond in there for a long necked tortoise, whom we would feed with meat and other choice delicacies. My parents continue on with their beef cattle and a couple of dogs to this day. So, understandably, I appreciate animals, and we have a few ourselves.
The other day I was introducing our pullets into the main chook pen with the older chooks. They were quite happy at first, enjoying the extra space and the green grass to pick at. They ran around, stretching their legs in the new found freedom and space, they flapped their wings and flew low to the ground; then they saw the older chooks -they became chicken, quickly forming together as a group, and retreating to their familiar space. I gave the older chooks some feed to distract them, and keep them away from the pullets, and then I coaxed the young pullets out with the same. I then closed the door to their former pen, just leaving the younger chickens there, and making the way back inaccessible to the growing pullets (or so I thought).
I came back to the chook pen in the course of the day, to give them all some of our kitchen scraps, only to find that the pullets had forced their way under the gate and retreated back into their familiar pen. They obviously had been subjected to the 'pecking order' that chooks are renowned for, sometimes life is hard, and instead of growing up and facing the hardships of change, they had retreated, choosing to be nestled in the familiar immaturity of a chicken, rather than stretching their wings, and standing up to be the pullet they are, and learning how to walk through life as a hen or a rooster.
I was reminded of how often we too are tempted to be 'chicken', and enjoy the comforts of familiarity, rather than step up and out into the newness that God has for us every day. God is ever persistent with us, such is His love. He knows what circumstances will move us on into the plans He has for us. He is the ever-wise Shepherd. My pullets are out in the main pen today, scratching around, enjoying the grubs and grass of the larger pen. They can't return and stay securely enclosed as they were. God too will force us onwards, outwards, upwards; as we remain faithfully His. God's timing is perfect and His love is secure. What new thing is the Lord doing in your life or has He spoken to your heart that is requiring you to again put your faith and trust in Him all the more? I encourage you to not be 'chicken' and trust in Him and His Word completely. If you are not yet His, I pray you will seek The Lord's face, break up the fallow ground of your heart til He reigns righteousness upon you. Truly His desire is that we will all trust in Him, and come out of any confining space into the maturity and freedom of His Spirit. The Lord bless your day!
"And he said Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus." Matthew 14:29 KJV
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