How often to we act like silly chicks, running away, while the mother hen, who knows better, is trying to gather us? Jesus speaks of us that way.

Luke 13:34 “O Jerusalem, 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 under her wings, but you were not willing!  

Jesus has called us to Himself with the message of free forgiveness because of what He did in our place. He calls us to believe in Him that we might have life and have it to the full. He seeks to gather us into a protected environment. It is an environment where we strive to live according to His laws and decrees because we know that He has already given us pardon and peace. He has freed us from sin and death by taking our place on the cross, dying to pay for our sins, and rising again to assure us of life everlasting.

Some refuse to be gathered. Even though God wants all men to be saved, and offers it freely to any and everyone, some will not be gathered. He invites them to believe, leads them to see His goodness and mercy, but they refuse. Unless they are gathered in before they die, nothing awaits them other than eternal torment in Hell.

Others have been gathered into this safe haven, His Church. They have heard the Good News and know what God has done, yet at times they want to turn their back on it, going astray, refusing to admit their sins so that they can receive the forgiveness that God offers so freely in Jesus Christ.

God provides protection. Some won’t enter, others who are in it want out. Perhaps it is because they feel too constrained. They want to get out from under what they feel is too restrictive an environment. Why did God have to give us rules that outlaw so many things? Is it really all that bad to break a commandment. Doesn’t it seem like God takes all the fun out of things? If only we were FREE. But what is that freedom? In the 1960’s Janis Joplin had a song that proclaimed: “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” That is where you find yourself when you refuse to be gathered. You find yourself in the midst of the immoral and anti-Christians forces of our society with nothing to protect you.

Would you rather be unprotected in this world or under the wings of your Mother Hen? When you are safe under the wings of Jesus, you have a different kind of freedom. You have freedom from all sins that would condemn us and separate us from Christ, freedom from worldly concerns. You discover that what you thought would be fun, those things God tells you not to do, aren’t worth the pain and suffering and heartbreak they bring into your life. It makes sense to obey God, the one who loved you enough to buy you back from sin. The things He tells you not to avoid are not worth running out from under the protection of His wings. Paul realized this and wrote about it this way:

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, no having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ.  Phil 3:8-9

Lightning struck a hen house and it burst into flames. The volunteer fire department could not save it, and it burned to the ground. As the farmer poked through the ashes, he found the charred carcass of a hen. Underneath the blackened carcass were six chicks who had survived the fire. The mother hen had gathered her chicks under her wings. She had died so they might live. And that is exactly what Jesus, your Mother Hen, did for you. He put himself in harm’s way for your sake. He paid the price of His life in exchange for yours. Then He rose again in victory, and He is still that Mother Hen that wants to gather you in, offering you the protection that comes only from being with Him.