Shelter

PREVIEW: Have you ever watched a hen in a downpour spread her wings and, in one fell swoop, gather all her chicks under those wings and hunker down in the storm? The babies literally disappear from sight until the storm passes while the mother absorbs the maelstrom. What a moving illustration of our Heavenly Father’s tender but protective love for us—his helpless kids. What an awesome thing that we belong to a God who longs for us to find shelter in our time of storm under the shadow of his wings! As the songwriter put it, “The raging storms may round us beat; A shelter in the time of storm.”

MY JOURNEY OF WORSHIP // Psalm 91:1-4

A few years ago, my wife and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary 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. Throughout the week, we noticed that a hen and her brood of about five or six baby chicks roamed the resort. Free-range chickens in Paradise—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 fire hose 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 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 the mother hen absorbed the maelstrom.

As we watched this tender scene in amazement, my wife and I simultaneously commented on this passage. 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. But here’s the deal: You’ve got to run to him!

Got a storm? Start running!