At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me,* “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem.” Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! (Luke 13:31-34)
The fox is out there.
Waiting.
Lurking.
Ready to pounce at any unsuspecting moment.
Desire for power and wealth
Consumerism
Self-sufficiency
Idolatry
Isolationism
This is our fox.
What we don't know
Will hurt us.
The mother hen knows the danger
And bids us come under her wings
Where it is warm and safe
Close to her heart.
Would we rather be scattered than gathered
If we knew that the foxes in our lives
Are not good for us?
(But, we do know.)
Gather us in
All of us, under your wing
Where we can know your protection
And know one another.
Just learned from my friend Dottie that the "hen and chicks" plants go by the botanic name "sempervivum" - which means always alive. I love what that means now when I think of the hen gathering her chicks. To be gathered in by the mother hen could mean, "always alive!"
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