{"id":5634,"date":"2026-08-07T09:23:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5634"},"modified":"2026-08-07T09:23:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:23:53","slug":"mother-hen-and-chicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/07\/mother-hen-and-chicks\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother Hen and Chicks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"447\" height=\"447\" src=\"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ChickenShelteringChicks2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5635\" style=\"width:314px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ChickenShelteringChicks2.png 447w, https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ChickenShelteringChicks2-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ChickenShelteringChicks2-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ChickenShelteringChicks2-176x176.png 176w, https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ChickenShelteringChicks2-60x60.png 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 447px) 100vw, 447px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To listen to today&#8217;s reflection as a podcast,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/us.list-manage.com\/DfE4YvfwS1F?e=5cd2a880e9&amp;c2id=f3ded70f8771b4074601e71cb2350800\">click here<\/a><br>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each day this month of August we\u2019ll be looking at one of the extraordinary metaphors that the Bible uses to illustrate the nature of our relationship with God.<br>\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br><em>\u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks<\/em> <em>under her wings,\u00a0and you were not willing\u201d<\/em> (Luke 13:34).<br>\u00a0<br>Why did the chicken cross the road?<br>\u00a0<br>There are so many more possibilities than just getting to the other side.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cI envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.\u201d (Martin Luther King, Jr.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cTo boldly go where no chicken has gone before.\u201d (Captain James T. Kirk)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cIn my day, we didn\u2019t ask why the chicken crossed the road.\u00a0Someone told us it happened, and that was good enough for us.\u201d (Grandpa)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cTo die.\u00a0In the rain.\u00a0Alone.\u201d\u00a0 (Ernest Hemingway)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cDid the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?\u201d (Albert Einstein)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cIsn\u2019t that interesting?\u00a0In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heartwarming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, yet went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.\u201d (Barbara Walters)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cNever send to know why the chicken crosses the road.\u00a0It crosses for thee.\u201d (John Donne)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cThat is not the question.\u201d (Hamlet)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cWell, I certainly understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross the road so badly.\u00a0Therefore, I\u2019m going to give this chicken a <em><u>new<\/u><\/em> <em><u>car<\/u><\/em> so he can just drive across the road from now on!\u201d (Oprah Winfrey)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cI invented the chicken.\u201d (Al Gore)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Who said there can\u2019t be new answers to an old riddle?<br><br>Then again, we can always start with an entirely new question: Why do chicks run and hide under their mother\u2019s wings?&nbsp;<br><br>It turns out that sheltering little ones is an aspect of parenting in numerous species of birds.<br><br>A parent&#8217;s wings protect from rain.&nbsp;And bright sun.&nbsp;And wind.&nbsp;And predators. Wings provide warmth.&nbsp;And a secure place.&nbsp;And the much-needed gift of time &#8211; the time that fledglings need to grow and mature before they head out into the wide, wide world.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br>Barnyard cats and dogs may close in on helpless chicks, only to see them dive under a hen\u2019s wings. When thinking of humans, we tend to associate \u201cmother hens\u201d with doting, over-protective parenting. But on the farm, few predators \u2013 even when they are bigger and stronger \u2013 relish the thought of taking on a seriously motivated hen committed to defending her young,<br><br>The psalmists frequently attribute&nbsp;such parental commitment&nbsp;to God.<br><br>According to Psalms 17, 36, 57, and 63, our safe place is &#8220;under the shadow of God&#8217;s wings.&#8221;&nbsp;The most memorable declaration is Psalm 91:4: <em>&#8220;He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge.&#8221;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em><br><br>As Jesus approaches Jerusalem for the last time \u2013 knowing he is headed for trial, torture, cross, and grave \u2013 he is overcome by emotion.<br><br>Thinking about God\u2019s reckless, faithless people, he groans, \u201cThere have been so many times I\u2019ve wanted to gather you together, the way a mother hen shelters her chicks, but you wouldn\u2019t have it!\u201d<br><br>In our present cultural moment, in which we are preoccupied with recovering America\u2019s \u201cmanosphere\u201d and appropriate testosterone levels, it\u2019s hard to imagine a male leader presenting himself as a mother hen. But that is exactly what Jesus does.<br><br>Make no mistake: Even though Jesus declares this extraordinary metaphor of God\u2019s compassion, his words are also a strong rebuke. There is a tension between God\u2019s love and human free will. God\u2019s people were not willing to receive God\u2019s care, and they will suffer because of it.<em><\/em><br><br>Even Jesus\u2019 closest friends were not yet able to grasp the ends to which he was willing to go to make good on God\u2019s promises of security.<br><br>He, as God\u2019s own Son, is about to give up his own life so they might live.<br><br>Chickens can only fly short distances.&nbsp;There&#8217;s no easy escape from disasters&nbsp;such as a barnyard fire or a violent storm.&nbsp;But a hen will do what she can.&nbsp;<br><br>Farmers occasionally report, in the smoldering ruins of an incinerated barn, the discovery of the charred body of a lifeless hen \u2013 only to see living chicks scurry out from beneath her wings, having been protected from the flames.<br><br>In Psalm 91 we learn that God is the&nbsp;refuge we can always trust.&nbsp;In the story of Jesus, we learn what that promise looks like in the real world.<br><br>When Jesus says he will cover us with his feathers, it means he is willing to die for us.<br><br>And our call? We are to run to him for shelter and place ourselves under his sacrificial work on the cross.<br><br>We will never find a safer place to live.<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To listen to today&#8217;s reflection as a podcast,&nbsp;click here&nbsp; Each day this month of August we\u2019ll be looking at one of the extraordinary metaphors that the Bible uses to illustrate the nature of our relationship with God.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/07\/mother-hen-and-chicks\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1162,1159,132],"class_list":["post-5634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jesus-death-2","tag-metaphors","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5636,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5634\/revisions\/5636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}