The Miracle Chick

7-20-2010

 I went out to see the chicks again today. They were born just two days ago.

 One died, that I could have saved, had I known more about pipping, hot outdoor temps, and babies getting too dry.

 God tried to tell me to go down and check up on it, but I delayed too long.

 Even if I had gone down to see it just an hour or two sooner, it would have lived.

 Sigh. The guilt and sadness over disobeying my Lord can be a heavy burden upon the heart sometimes.

 My little one had seen the baby earlier, and found it still moving around in its shell. “I’m surprised you aren’t already down there!” I shrugged and said I wanted to eat first. But I ended up burning my breakfast, so I took the time to re-make it and eat it.  I figured it would soon pop out of its shell and be fine.  But by the time I went down to help it out, it had already died.  

That evening, I checked http://www.BackYardChickens.com web site, hoping to find out what went wrong, and to see if what happened could be prevented in the future. Their web site had been updated, and so now it was easy to get good up-to-date information fast on hatching eggs. It claimed that if you were going to help it out, it should be helped out of the shell a ‘half a day’ after it first pips, or it can die in the shell from exhaustion, as it struggles to free itself. Because once it pips, and especially if it has a zip line, (which this one did,) it can dry out too soon, especially if it’s really hot and dry outside, for this can cause it to ‘stick’ to the shell like glue, and be unable to free itself.

 This poor thing was a silkie, with feathers more like fur, and the temperature outside had climbed over one hundred degrees.

 My heart just aches to think of that poor little chick, dying of exhaustion, while I stubbornly re-made my breakfast!

 Sigh. If only if only…

 So I go to my God, and share with Him my remorse and grief, and ask Him to forgive me for disobeying Him, and to send me His comfort.  

Immediately, I sense His peace fall over me, like a softly descending blanket, wrapping me in His arms.

He tells me “you will see it again”, and I figured that meant I would be able to see it living again one day up in heaven.

I know that my Lord has forgiven me, yet how much easier and less painful life would be, if I simply put my focus on doing His will, ALL the time, instead of QUESTIONING everything, and RATIONALIZING it to better fit into my own desires!

IF I HAD FOLLOWED GOD’S WILL THAT CHICK WOULD NOT HAVE DIED!

Well, anyways, today, when I went out to visit them, I found all of the chicks out from under their mother, frolicking in the hay. But this time, when I counted the chicks, I counted 8 of them. Previously, I had counted three barred rocks, and four silkies.

BUT NOW THERE WERE FIVE SILKIES.

Sure enough; we counted and re-counted them, and there’s one chick that is there now, that was NOT there yesterday.

We took many photos and video clips of the chicks being born. We even counted each one of them, on the video tape, held each one, noted each ones individual characteristics, checked under the mother’s wings, as well as all around ALL her feathers, (She did NOT like having her feathers ruffled like this; talk about a ticked and growling broody hen! But we had to be sure of the count,) seen there were no more eggs or chicks, before we transferred them to the bigger cage.

NO ONE CAN FIGURE OUT HOW THIS EXTRA CHICK CAME TO BE WITH THE OTHERS.  

 BUT

 It IS the same color as the one that died in its shell. And it IS the same size and age, as what the one that died would have been. And so I KEEP SMILING!

As I walked back inside the house, I thought of back in 2006, how the Lord had miraculously placed a bottle of calcium pills right in front of me when I needed them most, even though I had long run out of them. (I needed them–among other pills that I already had- to keep my heart beating after I had disobeyed my Lord and ended up getting bit by that horrid black widow spider.)

I smiled and couldn’t help but wonder…

“Oh Jesus! Did You just bless us when we weren’t looking?”

And without pause, came His answer. “All the time.”

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