Daily
Devotional

He was nothing but a scrawny runt of a rooster; even his tiny comb grew at a strange angle. He obviously would not even amount to something worth cooking for dinner. All he would ever do was eat the chicken feed we needed for the rest of our chickens.  

Yet, despite his uselessness, I kind of liked that scrawny rooster—maybe because I could identify with him. I was somewhat scrawny myself back then, so that runt and I had something in common. Hence, when the decision was made to cull him out of the flock, I let out quite a howl. A loud and tearful howl.

Our small flock of chickens was very important to our impoverished family. We carried their eggs to a corner grocery store and traded them for other food staples, so we could not afford to have useless runts eating up the chicken feed. I thought that my wail had saved the little rooster’s life, but after I quit crying and turned my back, someone took the axe and finished off the little guy on the chopping block.  

That little runt still comes to my mind occasionally. I tried to save him, but I could not. However, he reminds me of another scrawny little runt who needed to be saved—me! Spiritually speaking, I was useless in the sense that I could make no contribution to the welfare of others. Yet there was Someone who could save me, and Jesus did that when I came to Him in repentance. Not because of anything I deserved or earned, but only by His grace was I saved from eternal death.  

Even if I had been able to save that little chicken, he never would have been of any practical use to our family. He would have continued to take our resources without contributing to our egg supply. However, when Jesus saves us, He transforms us into something beautiful and gives us purpose in life. Satan loves to tell us that we are no good, that we will never amount to anything and may as well not even try. But because of Jesus, that is not true. His Blood can not only save scrawny little runts, but also change them into strong men and women of faith.