Chickens and Grace

Just after Easter one year I got 12 chicks to raise for eggs. My adventure of being a wannabe farmer began with these chicks. Not all of those chicks were hens as I had hoped they’d be, so as time unfolded I had to roll up my sleeves and do some of the nasty business of good old-fashioned farming. What hilarious adventures we had! And what profound lessons God provided through my chickens.

Chickens are very curious and observant creatures. They notice the tiniest of details. They noticed when I had new nail polish, and when they notice something, they check it out by pecking at whatever they are curious about. Therefore I always had to wear shoes or boots in the coop and pen. That might sound like a no-brainer to some of you true farmers, but my city roots showed through when I thought I’d just quickly duck into the coop and check for eggs while wearing my flip-flops. For a while they were pecking at the freckles on my legs so I couldn’t even wear shorts. My fingernail that refused to grow back after a fungal infection became the main attraction of my fault-finding chickens. They didn’t just notice my imperfections; they’d also peck at each other and continue to peck until some of my poor chickens had no feathers left on their back side. Sad looking creatures, they were!

One day as I sat quietly before the Lord with a listening heart, I asked Him if there was anything He wanted to share with me in our time together. In my mind’s eye, I saw a big chicken head coming closer and closer and closer. The head became bigger and bigger and bigger and came so close to me that I began to feel invaded and somewhat afraid. “Why is this chicken coming at me? Why do even I see a chicken?” I asked. As I continued to watch and interact with the Lord, I wondered if this chicken was symbolizing God. “Are you coming close to inspect me - are you wanting to point out something in my life that needs to be addressed?” I’m aware that God brings correction to me at times, but this intriguing picture didn’t seem to hold that message for me.
I noticed that although the chicken was so close with its eye inspecting every part of me, it wasn’t pecking me. It wasn’t finding fault with anything it saw. The chicken continued to look at me so thoroughly, but still, no pecking occurred.

I began to understand the message that God was so uniquely and personally sharing with me. God’s objective – although He sees everything and knows everything about me – isn’t to find fault with me. His character isn’t like my fault-finding chickens. Nor is it like mine which too often resembles that of my chickens. Rather, God sees me through grace. He sees me through Christ’s righteousness.

Oh, I pray that we would grasp that truth – that God would open our eyes to understand the grace that He lavishly pours out on us through Jesus Christ.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view (or "according to the flesh" ESV). Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 NIV

I’m convinced that when we have this truth rooted and growing in our hearts, we will more readily reflect God’s character than the character of fault-finding chickens!