Broody Judy
I can do all things through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13
Back on the farm we had lots of chickens. None of them were fancy but they all served a purpose. There were lots and lots of eggs and we traded eggs for milk with the neighbor. But when the chickens quit laying, they suddenly disappeared. (Many a Sunday dinner was fried chicken and all the fixings.) Louis Lotz shares a message from All God’s Creatures that might just be for each of us.
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I keep chickens—Black Australorps. The birds have a soft, glossy, black plumage. Aussies are calm and friendly and great egg layers. All except one.
Judith, alas, has gone broody. A broody hen won’t leave the nesting box. She wants her egg to hatch, and she’ll sit on it all day long in an attempt to hatch it. But we have no roosters, so the eggs are not fertile. Judith can sit there all day, every day, for weeks on end, and her egg still won’t hatch. Normally Judith is sweet, affectionate, and gentle, but now she squawks angrily and pecks when I come near her.
Nobody knows exactly what makes a hen go broody, and there is no surefire way to snap her out of her broodiness. I put broody Judy in her own separate box with food and water but no nesting material. In a day or two, hopefully, she’ll be back to normal. In the meantime, there she sits, glaring menacingly at me, waiting for something to happen that isn’t going to happen.
Sometimes I find myself waiting for something to happen and then realizing that it never will. It’s like I put my life on hold, expecting something, or someone to come along and meet my deepest needs. But after a while, a voice within me whispers, Stop waiting for something to happen. The key to your happiness is not to be found in somebody else’s pocket. Get up, get going, and move on.
This morning I checked on the chickens, and Judith was back to her old self, gently clucking, pecking for bugs, fluffing her shiny black feathers. She comes running to me, looking for a handout, which she receives. She has stopped waiting for something to happen and moved on. “Welcome back, Judith,” I say.
Walk of Faith: Have you placed the key to your happiness in someone else’s pocket and expecting someone else to solve your problems, to meet your deepest needs? Ask God to help you to know when to hang on and when to let go, when to hunker down and when to move on.
Father God, help us to remember that only You can fulfill our deepest desires. AMEN.