Daily
Devotional

When I was a child, spring was the time to go into town and buy a batch of baby chickens. We raised them for fryers and to produce fresh eggs. These chicks required special care to keep them warm and properly fed and, since they were away from their mothers, it was up to us to take care of them. I remember them as small “peeping” balls of yellow fuzz in a box by our wood stove—where we stored them to keep them from being chilled. They also had to have particular food which was safe for young chicks to digest. Being so tiny and helpless, they were totally reliant on our family.

All too soon, our cute little chicks turned into leggy, unruly youngsters, who still needed special care but were much harder to manage. Once when a thunderstorm blew in, my mother told us to bring the young chickens inside from the cool, wet weather so they would not become ill. It took much running and chasing before they could be captured! They were old enough to get away from us, but too young to know that they needed to seek shelter in the hen house.

Jesus likened His people to chickens, saying that just as chicks run to the mother hen for shelter, the Jews should have sought safety under God’s wings. However, the Jews did not come to God. Like the unruly chickens my family had to chase down, the Children of Israel ran away from their own protection, and they suffered greatly as a result. They had no defense against attacks from their enemies because they ignored God’s call to safety.

As Christians, we need to seek shelter under Jesus’ wings. It is unwise to think that because we are not spiritual “babies” any longer, we do not need the protection of our heavenly Father. There may be dangers on the horizon that we do not see. Jesus told us that He wants us to stay in the shadow of His wings where we have refuge, and we can do that by keeping close to Him and not wandering away on our own. As we stay near Him, He will protect us from every storm that passes by.