Hello,
We still have 5
chickens…. but barely.
I came back from
the store a couple of days ago, and so as I went to the side door my hands were
full. As usual, on the other side of the
door my two dogs were anxiously and excitedly waiting for me. But not as usual, when I opened the door,
instead of jumping on me and assaulting me with gladness, McMahon darted out
the door and down the steps…..trouble!
Trouble because our chickens were out of their coop dining on bugs and
worms, and I knew that McMahon had dashed out the door with dining on his mind,
too. Chickens!
I yelled at him
to come back as he dashed out the door.
My yells were wasted breath.
Unfortunately, since I had left the door open as I was trying to
retrieve McMahon, my other dog, Duncan, seized the moment to escape too, with
dining likewise on his mind. I quickly
put my shopping stuff down and ran down the stairs in hot pursuit of the
escapees. Before I got to the bottom of
the stairs I heard wild chicken squawking coming from the front of the
house. I continued my yelling, trying a
variety of commands…”Come!”….”Stop!”… “Woah!
….”Duncan!”…. “McMahon!”. All
wasted breath as they tore around to the back of the house in hot blooded
pursuit of the chickens who were making it known that they were being attacked
by their cries of distress.
When I got around
to the back of the house I saw the commotion that I had heard. Chickens taking to flight, dogs leaping to
snag them, and feathers flying everywhere.
Unfortunately for one chased chicken, Duncan, the true hunter of the
two, snapped down on the chicken before it could resume flight. I increased the intensity of my yelling as I
ran toward the capture, but instinct had well overwhelmed any obedience by this
time, and he began to gnaw on the chicken at took to filing his mouth with
feathers.
That is when I
arrived at the scene of the crime, and grabbed Duncan by the nape of the neck
and McMahon, who had joined in, too. I
must have caught them between gnaws, because as I pulled them off the chicken,
the chicken dropped to the ground…flapping its wings in desperate hopes of
escape. But not for long, because the
grip that I had on my dogs slipped and off they were to finish the job. Around the corner by my hot tub they went. Dogs drooling. Chicken squawking. This time, however, I got there before they
could latch onto the chicken who was cornered behind a plant stand. The chicken was motionless as I dragged the
dogs away and took them inside…Duncan, his mouth full of feathers.
I went back to
see if the chicken had met its maker or not, and I found it where I had left it….motionless. I picked it up. It was alive.
I set it on the ground……it moved.
Phew!
I left the
chicken and went inside to scold my dogs for doing what came natural to them,
which seems a bit of a foolish thing to do.
When I got to the door, they greeted me with hopes of going back outside….Duncan
still with feathers in his mouth. I let
them know that their hopes were ill conceived, trying to catch my breath from
the chase I had just undertook.
A few minutes
later, the door opened and Kate walked in.
She had returned from running an errand.
“We just about lost a chicken,” I said with frustration oozing from my
voice, recounting the event that she had just missed being part of.
She could tell
that I was a bit disconcerted, and so she said to me, “Are you alright?”
“It is just
frustrating trying to keep those chickens alive,” I said, given the fact that
we live with two bird dogs whose greatest desire in life is to hunt them
down. There are days…many of them…when
it would just be a lot easier to be chicken free.
But alas…we still
have 5 chickens.
Given my
frustration with trying to keep these chickens alive, I have come to a greater
appreciation of the depth of God’s love for me.
For I am certain that in the greater scope of things, it would be a lot
easier on God for God to be free of me.
It sure must be very frustrating keeping me alive, physically and
spiritually. I wander into trouble. I am the object of hungry prey. My ability to escape snapping jaws is limited. It would certainly be a lot easier on God to
be free of me…but God so loves me that he has done what I would never do for
our pesky chickens. He died to make me
his forever….forever! It would be far
easier for God to be free of me, but God won’t let that happen. God is stuck with me….well, although it may
seem from my perspective that God is stuck with me…. apparently not from God’s. From God’s perspective….amazing as it is…God
is thankful to have me….and you, too.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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