| The parable of the lost chicken |
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15:3 So he told them this parable: 15:4 "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? 15:5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 15:6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.' 15:7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
As most of you know, our family has four pet chickens. We adopted them last April when they were 4 days old. We have raised them from tiny little fur balls into grown Rhode Island Red chickens. We each have our own, and they each have their own personalities. They each have a different colored leg band so we can tell them apart. We have:
Henrietta -- my chicken, who can be a bit bossy to the others.
Scrambler -- Hannah's chicken who is very cranky when she is hungry.
Eggbert -- Jonathan's chicken who has a "whatever" attitude.
Chicken Little - Timothy's chicken - the runt, who loves to be be picked up and carried around, but also is the only one who occasionally flies over the fence.
The chickens have a pen/hutch in the backyard. We have a fenced backyard, so we let them out every day for most of the afternoon, and then they usually put themselves up (they fly into their pen) in the evenings and we just close the door to keep them in there for the night.
Thursday night, I asked Hannah to put up the chickens. She went out, saw them in their pen and closed the door. The only problem was that she didn't count to make sure they were all in there. She just closed the door and came back inside for the night.
Friday morning, at 6:15 Jonathan woke up to go feed the chickens and found that Chicken Little was missing. I didn't want Timothy to know - he would have been hysterical. So I got up, put on my blue fuzzy robe and out I went with Jonathan and Hannah looking for that chicken. We have woods on both sides of our house, so they went through the woods, while I went up and down the street fearing that the chicken had tried to cross the road to get to the other side, only didn't make it!
By 7:30, we had given up trying to find the chicken for a little while. Jonathan needed to get ready for school. I was going to resume the search later in the morning
After Jonathan got ready for school, he went out one last time to look for Chicken Little. He went to the woods and started scratching in the leaves like the chickens do, and then he heard something scratching in the leaves. He followed the sound until he found Chicken Little and brought him home safe and sound.
When Jonathan walked in the backdoor carrying Chicken Little we all did the happy dance and had a little celebration. We were so happy to have found him and that he was now safe at home where he belonged.
It's just like Jesus said about the sheep. It wasn't enough for us to just have the 3 chickens. We wanted the lost one too -- enough for me to be walking up and down the street at 6:15 in my fuzzy robe trying to find him -- enough for Jonathan to go to the woods and scratch like a chicken to see if the chicken would hear and scratch back.
Jesus wants the one that is lost. He will do whatever it takes to find the one that is lost and bring them back to Him so they can be home with Him in Heaven. |
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