My poor girls – they’ve just been through it! I came home from work two weeks ago on a Friday. Stuck in my usual routine, I walked over to the kitchen door and looked out at the barn. And, what do I see? A hawk sitting on the fence not 10 feet from my gals’ coop. Of course, the first thing I did was scream “Hawk!” and I took off out the door, work clothes and all and Tony was right behind. We ran to the barn, hollering and arms flailing like mad. It flew away across the road.
We went into the barn to look for the girls and on the way, we saw feathers, white feathers. A clump here, a clump there, a trail of two on their path to the barn. My heart sunk. Now I know that free range chickens are also free game chickens, but I don’t have to like it. Seeing the hawk and seeing feathers, I saw the writing was on the wall.
I came back to the house, changed from my work clothes, and I began the search as Tony continued chasing the hawk out into the woods. I was full of angry emotions and as he headed out I told him to get rid of the hawk. He said he couldn’t it was a protected bird, it was against the law. This made me angrier. My terse retort was that I could be fined and jailed for killing a bird, but not a baby. Yes, I said that out loud. I told him that I needed someone, somewhere to explain that logic to me because it made absolutely no sense.
Anyway, I went to search for my girls. There was only one. Sitting in the bottom of the coop was one of my black girls, completely frozen in place. She didn’t even blink. At first I thought she was dead from fright, but looking super close, you could see she was breathing, barely. Now we don’t know how long the hawk had sat a fence, but we do know that from his vantage point, he had a birds eye view of black girl and she of him. She was literally scared stiff, and really, who wouldn’t be?
I went looking for the other three. I walked through the woods, I went to all their hiding places. I called and called. About an hour later, having a fruitless search, I went back to the barn to check on stiff girl. She blinked. I knew she’d be ok. But still no others. After a few minutes trying to comfort stiff girl, I heard a rustle in the feed bags behind a wheel barrel in the barn. I made my peep-peep sound and I heard a faint peep-peep back. I continued. She continued. And then a girl made her way out of the feeds bags. It was white girl! Unharmed! She ran to stiff girl and stiff girl got up. I hung out with them a little bit to reassure them and then started back for the house.
I continued to call the other girls on my way back to the house. Half way back I heard a slight peep. I called and called. Eventually, a little black head and a little red head appeared from under the horse trailer. They had been hiding in the woods across the road and were making their way back to the barn. They were super scared. It took some coaxing, before they’d come and then they ran from brush pile to brush pile (this has been the only time I’m grateful for the brush piles) straight to me. Seeing I was on guard, they took off for the barn at top speed, butts awaggin. Ever body is home, safe and sound – well, sort of.
The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. Proverbs 22:3
For now, my gals are in hiding. They know danger lurks and they aren’t coming out of the barn. They know the risks should the hawk come back around, which he has. I think I should learn from my chicks. This world is full of hidden and open dangers. The evil one is quite wily and we must constantly be on our toes for danger. This danger may or may not be a physical danger, but there is another more dangerous danger, spiritual danger. Anytime we are tempted and then act on sin, we put ourselves in dangerous danger. Anytime we drift from God, we are in dangerous danger. Anytime we are disobedient, we are in dangerous danger . But here’s the thing, there are things we can do to avoid spiritual danger. There are actions we can take to protect ourselves. We must be in the Word of the Lord and we must communicate with the Word.
Most things in life we absolutely cannot control. We may not be able to keep ourselves from physical danger, but we absolutely can keep ourselves from spiritual danger. An active relationship with the Jesus Christ is all the protection we need.
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1
We’ve seen the hawk lurking in a tree beside our house. Just as our chickens know that staying in the barn conceals them and keeps them safe, we also know that when troubles come our way, the Lord will conceal us and keep us from danger. He always keeps His promises and we may take refuge in Him.