The Thanksgiving holiday is a time when many American homes have a turkey dinner. This is a custom started over two hundred years ago when the Pilgrims made a feast to thank God for their bountiful crops. Indians who were invited brought wild turkeys, and this tasty meat proved to be so popular that the annual feast usually includes roast turkey.
The wild turkey, which lives throughout much of North America, is a resourceful creature. It has excellent sight and can spot intruders before they can come near. Its bronze colors help it to blend into the brush. It can run from danger at speeds of fifteen miles an hour or take to the air at more than fifty miles an hour!
A wild tom is an interesting sight, particularly when he is seeking a mate. He approaches a hen with loud gobbles, and the pouchlike area at the front of his throat, called a wattle, becomes brilliant red. With his breast and body feathers puffed out, he spreads his wings to the ground and fans out his multi-colored tail, and then he struts around in a lordly manner.
The hen makes her nest in dry leaves for the four-week incubation of a dozen eggs. Almost immediately after hatching, the chicks can feed themselves, and the hen trains them to find nuts, berries, fruit, seeds and insects. They are not aware of it, but we know it is the Creator’s care that provides for all their needs. The Bible says, “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap . . . yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” (Matthew 6:2626Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? (Matthew 6:26)). He certainly does count us “much better than they” and wants you and me to know of His deep love for us and His invitation to live with Him in His heavenly home.
As soon as the young turkeys can fly, they leave the nest and roost in trees at night, which is much safer. In about two years they are fully grown and weigh from twenty to thirty pounds.
If a rattlesnake appears, the hens puff out their feathers and with loud hissing usually frighten it away. But if it continues to threaten them, a tom soon shows up, and the snake is doomed. Striking the tom, all it gets is a mouthful of feathers. The tom’s sharp beak soon kills this enemy.
These birds of the forest are clever, but the Bible tells us God has made us wiser than they (Job 35:1111Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven? (Job 35:11)). This wisdom is given so that we might seek the Lord and answer to His promise: “I love them that love Me; and those that seek Me early shall find Me” (Proverbs 8:1717I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. (Proverbs 8:17)). Are you wise enough to follow His instruction?
ML-11/21/2004