Chicken Shelter

Chicken Shelter

I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

— Psalm 61:4

My coworker at Joni and Friends, Billy Burnett, was raised as one of eleven children in a poor sharecropper’s cabin on the corner of the Jimmy Lynch farm in east Texas. When Billy’s father scraped together enough money from cutting cotton, he moved his family to Texarkana.

When Billy was a little boy, he’d watch his mother — Mama Teal — throw grain to the chickens in the backyard. He would sit on his haunches and observe how the chicks would flock around the mother hen. Whenever dark clouds of a storm gathered and wind would blow, the hen would lift her wing a certain way and her chicks would come running. Her arched wing was their signal that danger was near. She was indicating they should scurry and find safety by her side.

Oh, that you and I were like one of those chicks. Oh, that we would run without hesitation or question to find refuge in the shelter of God’s wing. Even Jesus, when he looked out over the Holy City, said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matthew 23:37 KJV).

Don’t be one of the “would not’s” today. When the dark clouds of trouble start brewing on the horizon, run — don’t walk — to find protection near the breast of God. When the Lord gives you the signal, “Come quickly,” take it as an indication from the Holy Spirit to find refuge under the shelter of God’s wing. There you will be safe from any stormy trial.

Under your wings I am safely abiding, though the night deepens and tempests are wild. Still I can trust you; I know you will keep me. You have redeemed me, and I am your child.