Mary shone her flashlight around the small chicken coop and counted her hens perched on their roost for the night. Four brown hens and then two white ones carefully watched the light.
It was just as she had feared... white hen number three was missing again.
It hadn’t taken long for those seven fluffy little chicks to grow into the pretty brown and white feathered hens they were today. It also hadn’t taken Mary long to realize that one was a “wayward chick"!
The chickens had spent the first few weeks of their lives last spring under a warm light in a box on Mary’s sun porch. There were four, soft, little black chicks and three yellow ones. Anytime one escaped from the box, it was always a yellow one. The family thought about marking each yellow chick with a different color to see if it was always the same one who was running around the porch, peeping unhappily because it couldn’t get back into the box.
The warm days of June arrived, and the chickens were moved into their chicken coop at the back of the yard. They had everything chickens could want. There was straw to nest in, a feeder full of food, plenty of water, and a little door to the outside. A ramp led down from the door into a fenced run where there were weeds to eat and plenty of grasshoppers waiting to be caught. With all of this, why would a chicken want to get out?
Mary’s white hen isn’t the only one not satisfied. Read the story of the sheep in the gospel of Luke, chapter 15. That sheep had green pastures to feed in, a shepherd to care for it, and a safe fold to sleep in at night. Yet it wandered away, too.
After the white hen had escaped from the chicken run several times, Mary’s father helped her clip all the hens’ wings. A few feathers were trimmed off just one wing, and then they couldn’t balance themselves to fly — at least not high enough to go over the fence and escape.
The seven hens spent the summer growing bigger and fatter. Then one September day Mary looked out the window and discovered a white hen in the pumpkin patch! The clipped wing feathers had grown back, and the hen was once again able to fly over the fence!
Doesn’t this remind us of ourselves? We are all born with a nature that is never satisfied, and every one of us wants his own way. “By one man sin entered into the world.” Romans 5:1212Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12). We are just like that hen, or the sheep of Luke 15. Both wandered into danger and away from the care of those who wanted to protect them.
Now Mary’s flashlight showed her that the white hen in the pumpkin patch had not come back on its own. Mary and her dad decided to look for it.
The night was dark, and they thought a white hen would be easily seen, but they couldn’t find it. They had to give up.
This is where the story is different from the one the Lord Jesus told of the lost sheep. In that story the shepherd went after the lost sheep until He found it.
In daylight the next morning Mary and her father made another careful search, but there was no sign of the missing hen. But late in the afternoon Mary’s brother saw something white in the bushes across the road from their home. The hen was found!
But, do you know, that hen still didn’t want to go home where it would be safe. How foolish when it was in such danger from foxes, hawks or even cars on the road. You also are in serious danger; you face the punishment for your sins. However, the Lord Jesus loves you and suffered for sins and gave His life on the cross. He tells us He came “to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10). Won’t you let Him save you?
Mary’s hen may run away and be lost again. But how wonderful to know that when the Lord Jesus saves us He also promises we shall never be lost again. “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” John 10:2828And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:28).
ML-03/19/1989