Needy Peep

Have you ever observed a hen settle over her chicks?

Mother hen has a dozen or so peeps scattered several feet from her.  A hawk's shadow is spotted gliding across the ground. Mother hen cackles loudly! Her chicks race to her from all sides. She shakes herself violently, ruffling all her wing, breast and tail feathers, each pinion standing straight out. The peeps run headlong, right into their mother, disappearing from view. She rustles her full frame down over her brood. When all danger is gone, she will quietly cluck the all clear and her peeps reappear one or two at a time, continuing to peck the ground for grubs.

Do you get the picture?

That mother hen will settle in over her chicks several times a day. She will even give her own live with her little ones nestled safely inside her downy feathers.

Not all chickens react to fearful situations like this. Some will run and cackle loudly in a panic. Those hens do not make good mothers. They are too concerned for their own safety to care about the needs of others.

I have seen both kinds of hens in action. You see, when our children were little, we raised several broods of bantam chicks. We ordered our first lot of 25 from a hatchery and the box of peeps were delivered through the U.S. mail. We kept them under a warm lamp and watched them grow into a variety of hens and roosters. (I'll blog about what we learned.)

Those chickens not only provided valuable instruction to our children, God used them to illustrate scripture to me.

Psalm 17:8 "Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of they wings."

Psalm 91:4 "He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler."

God SETTLES down over me like that mother hen and SETTLES me!

Webster defines settle as: putting in order, to set in place firmly or comfortably, to free the nerves from disturbance, to decide, to become more stable, to reach an agreement or decision.

As I studied the hen and her chicks, I saw how God has settled over me. Psalms says his word is settled in heaven. It is resolved never to change and his promises are true. Isaiah 12 says God is my salvation, therefore my salvation is settled. Those things are in order, established by an eternal God who will never change.

Running to him, hiding in his word, has labled me a weak, crutch needing, dependent female, to which I say, "AMEN!" It is when I am weak, that his strength is perfect. When I am nestled under his wings, he frees my nerves from disturbance, gives me direction, helps me rely on his stablity. So, just call me a "Needy Peep."