One summer, a mother pheasant was sitting on a nest in the field where Dad was cutting alfalfa to make hay. Dad didn’t see her until it was too late, and sadly she died. He told Mom and she asked him to gather the pheasant eggs from the nest so she could tuck them in under a mother hen that was sitting on her own eggs in their henhouse. So that’s what they did. Mother hen sat on the pheasant eggs along with her own eggs, without even knowing it.
Only two of the pheasant eggs hatched. The mother hen raised them, one male and one female, right along with her own chicks, which had hatched about the same time. She didn’t seem to notice that two of her chicks looked different.
Boys and girls, do any of you sit beside or near another classmate in school that might be a little different? Maybe their clothes or shoes look old and are torn. Or maybe their skin is a different color than yours. And maybe one or two don’t speak English very well, especially if they are from another country. We hope you don’t laugh at them or make fun of how they look or talk. That would make them feel sad and lonely. Put yourself in their shoes and think how you would feel. Then be a friend to that boy or girl. The Lord Jesus tells us, “Be ye kind one to another” (Ephesians 4:3232And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32)). And He also says, “As ye would that [others] should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:3131And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. (Luke 6:31)).
And so the two little pheasants grew bigger and soon had pretty pheasant feathers. When Mom felt they were big enough, she took them out into the field to set them free. We children went along and enjoyed watching them fly and then hide in the tall grass. She told me she saw them come back to the henhouse a couple of times before they joined the wild.
Mom was kind and caring to those two pheasants. And that’s exactly how we should be to others, just like Jesus said.
ML-12/07/2014