We keep a small flock of chickens in our back pasture. As long as we give them food and water, they lay eggs for us, which we cook up for breakfast or put in cakes and cookies. A fence keeps out neighborhood dogs. At night the hens sleep in a little house where they are safe from their enemies—dogs, raccoons, possums and coyotes.
From her earliest days, one of the hens decided she was going to fly over the fence to lay her eggs in a nest of her own. Every day we would see her outside the fence, and soon we discovered her nest under a rose bush. We took scissors and cut off her wing feathers. This didn’t hurt the chicken; it just made her unable to fly.
For a while it worked, and the wandering chicken had to lay her eggs in the chicken house, with the rest of her hen friends. But when her feathers grew back, we saw her out on the lawn, strutting around by herself and then ducking into her old nest under the rose bush to lay an egg.
Do you think she thought about safety? I don’t think so. She just had to get outside of that fence every day to do what she wanted to do. Freedom meant more than safety to her. Well, you can guess the sad ending for this hen.
Our relatives came to stay with us last summer, and they brought along their big, beautiful dog, Henry. Henry was running and playing in the yard when he caught sight of a chicken on the loose. Ah, this looked like a new game to play. We heard a scuffle and a squawk, and that was the end of the wandering hen!
If our wandering hen had stayed inside the fence where she belonged, she would still be alive today, giving us eggs. There is a lesson for all of us in this sad little story. A verse in the Bible says it well: “There is a way which [seems] right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:1212There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12)).
Listen to God’s warning! Boys and girls, are you trying to get away from the rules and protection of your parents or teachers? Do you want to do things your own way? The Bible tells all of us to “obey them that have the rule over you ... for they watch for your souls” (Hebrews 13:1717Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. (Hebrews 13:17)).
Worse yet, when you hear the gospel being preached, are you blocking your ears from the call to be sorry for your sins and accept Jesus’ offer of salvation? If you put off taking His offer, you might not get another chance. “Today if [you] will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:1515While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. (Hebrews 3:15)).
Next time you see a chicken, I hope you will remember this little story and choose God’s way—first, for the salvation of your precious soul, and second, for a happy, useful life walking with Jesus.
ML-02/03/2013