Aren’t baby chickens cute? They are so little with bright eyes, tiny beaks, legs and feet, and their bodies are covered with soft, yellow fuzz! The Lord Jesus enjoys these little creatures too, for they are part of His marvelous creation.
Where do they come from?
“Oh,” you answer, “they come from an egg.”
Right. But where did the egg come from?
“It came from a chicken,” you reply.
Both answers are correct, but let’s see just how the Creator arranged for this to happen.
Most eggs laid by hens are “infertile” and end up being used for cooking. Baby chicks never come from these eggs, but when there is a rooster in the flock, the hen produces fertile eggs, which are the beginnings of baby chicks. Fertile eggs begin inside the hen’s body as a single cell too small to see. This single cell is a little white spot smaller than a pinhead.
A microscope would show the white spot (called the germ-spot) resting on the yolk, which is formed first and is made of six separate rings. Albumen (the white of an egg) forms around the yolk and germ-spot in another series of layers. The first almost liquid layer develops around the yolk, enabling it to float and keeping it safe from damage. Next to it a tough, flexible membrane grows which is strong enough to protect the inside of the egg when it later drops into a nest. Then a third layer is just a thin covering. All this time the germ-spot is resting on top of the yolk, waiting for the right moment to begin growing into a living chick.
Over all this, two more sheets of white membrane form to become a lining inside the two-layered shell. In every egg a small chamber is left vacant at the rounded end—right where the baby chick’s head will lie when developing. Later we will see why this is necessary. In God’s marvelous programming, the germ-spot is now ready to develop into a living chick. We will outline in the next issue just how this takes place.
Of course, in addition to chickens, there are millions of birds hatching each year in many sizes, shapes and colors. However, all of them begin life in the same way, except that some take longer to hatch than others.
As the verse at the beginning of this article reminds us, the birds have nests in which to lay their eggs, but when the Lord Jesus came to earth He had nowhere to lay His head. What a loving Saviour He is. “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:99For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)).
(to be continued)
ML-03/14/2010