Shelter

Have you ever watched a hen gather her chicks under her wings in a downpour? When the clouds burst, momma will spread her wings and the chicks will run to her, and in one fell swoop, she will gather all those babies under her wings and hunkered down in the storm. The chicks will literally disappear as the hen absorbs the maelstrom. In our time of storm, Psalm 91 says that God longs for us to find shelter in the shadow of his wings, too! And what love that Father has for us that he will absorb our storm through his son, Jesus Christ. Got a storm? Start running!

My wife and I were celebrating our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary a few years back on the beautiful Hawaiian island of Kauai. It was in July, and we were on the rainier side of this lush island, and man was it raining. Throughout the day the clouds would burst and the downpour would send both man and beast running for cover.

We had a ground floor condo for the week that opened up into the grassy interior of the resort, and throughout the week, we noticed a hen and her brood of about five or six baby chicks that roamed the resort, and to our delight,  often took their leisure on our patio. Free range paradise chickens—what a life!

On one occasion when the downpour hit, we were in the room and the hen was right outside our sliding glass doors. When the clouds burst, it looked as if a firehose had been turned on; it was unbelievable. Then the most amazing thing happened: those baby chicks made a beeline for momma hen. I didn’t know chickens could run that fast. And old momma hen spread her wings like she had done it a million times before, and in one fell swoop, gathered all the babies under her wings and hunkered down in the storm. The chicks literally disappeared from sight for about 10 minutes, while mother hen absorbed the maelstrom.

As we watched this tender scene in amazement, my wife and I simultaneously commented on these tender verses from Psalm 91. As touched as we were by the mother hen’s love for her chicks, we were awestruck and undone by the Heavenly Father’s tender but protective love of his helpless kids—chicks like us.

What an awesome thing that we belong to a God who longs for us to find shelter in the time of storm under the shadow of his wings! And what love the Father has for us that he should send his only Son to absorb the storm of sin and protect us from the righteous wrath of the One who cannot tolerate that sin.

And the Son, Jesus Christ, still longs to gather us under his wings, as a hen gathers her brood: “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings…”

He longs to gather you, but here’s the deal: You’ve got to run to him!