"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.  Mathew 23:37

 

In an old edition of Christianity Today, Andrea Midgett writes: ‘One winter night years ago I went outside to check on the animals in my father’s barn. It was so cold that the water in the horse’s trough had frozen solid. As I went to get an axe to chop through the ice, I noticed a hen perched nearby with several chicks tucked under her wings. She had turned her face and frail body into the storm, her wings outstretched, covering them securely. Suddenly, I was uplifted by this picture of Jesus caring for me. ‘But it struck me that those chicks had to come to the mother hen first. Maybe she chased some of them around the yard. Maybe others came willingly. Maybe some were still out there half-frozen. (There were a few late arrivals perched on top of her wings). I know only that the ones underneath had allowed themselves to be gathered up and protected. They had quit fighting what they couldn’t control. They’d acknowledged that they needed somebody bigger than themselves who was willing to save them. ‘When I see the cross, I think of the outstretched arms of Jesus. There He is, dying a slow and terrible death with his arms wide open, saying to us, ‘often I have longed to gather [you] as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings’’. The cross is God’s invitation to you to stop struggling and come in from the cold. Why don’t you come today?