It's Been A Tough Year, But I Made It!!!

How About You???

Have you heard the one about the chicken with its feathers nearly pulled completely out?!

Quite some time ago, someone forwarded an e-mail to me with a comical snapshot of just such a chicken. The sight of it struck such a deep resonating chord within me that I immediately printed out the picture, trimmed it neatly and taped it to the inside door of my desk-hutch door. I knew I would want to look at that chicken again.

 A stately looking chicken it is, too, despite the fact that just nearly all of its multi-colored feathers have been plucked out!  But still giving the impression of a confident chicken it appears to be walking purposefully along a dirt and graveled road.

The caption reads:    “It’s been a tough year, but I made it!!!  How about you???”

The next thing I noticed was the head held high on an erect neck and the body fully upright with the two skinny legs taking nice long steps, even though the chicken looked for the entire world as though it had come through a near-death experience!

At some point in time I jotted down this Scripture reference on the bottom of the picture: Leviticus 26:13:   “”I am the LORD  your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.”  (NIV 2011.)

This picture has been ‘speaking’ to me over a long period of time, so why today I should sit down to reflect on it and look up again Leviticus 26:13, I can’t truly say. But it’s on my heart and I must write about it – today.

As I read today’s and yesterday’s devotionals in one of my favorite books¹, the Scripture verses and the texts both seemed to say to me about the same thing as the sight of the chicken reminds me of: 

Hard times will come to all of us, but that is no reason to give in to them.

 “If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth:  and if the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.”  Ecclesiastes 11:3 (KJV).

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.  Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”  2 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV 2011).

“When God made thee a believer, He meant to try thee; and when He gave thee promises, and bade thee trust, He gave such promises as are suitable for times of tempest and tossing. … His Word of promise is meant to be tried and proved. … Covenant blessings are not meant to be looked at only, but to be appropriated.  Even our Lord Jesus is given to us for our present use.  Thou dost not make use of Christ as thou oughtest to do. …O…, I beseech you do not treat God’s promises as if they were curiosities for a museum; but use them as every day sources of comfort.  Trust the Lord whenever your time of need comes on.”  --- C. H. Spurgeon.¹

“… How can we have rain without clouds?  Our troubles have always brought us blessings, and they always will.  They are the dark chariots of bright grace.  … Our God may drench us with grief, but He will refresh us with mercy.  Our Lord’s love-letters often come to us in black-edged envelopes.  … Let us not worry about the clouds but sing because May flowers are brought to us through the April clouds and showers.  O Lord, the clouds are the dust of Thy feet!  How near Thou art in the cloudy and dark day!  Love beholds Thee, and is glad. ….” -- C. H. Spurgeon.¹

“What seems so dark to thy dim sight may be a shadow seen aright making some brightness doubly bright.  The flash that struck thy tree – no more to shelter thee – lets heaven’s blue floor shine where it never shone before.  The cry wrung from thy spirit’s pain may echo on some far-off plain, and guide a wanderer home again.”¹  ----- Author Unknown.

All of us have felt the hurt from our own personal “spirit’s pain,”  the hurt that hurts our hearts but yet seems to go so much deeper….  down into our very spirits.

Seldom have I experienced such pain that I have not thought even fleetingly, “Why, Lord?  Why must life and love hurt so much, so heavy, and so deep?”

 I am reminded again and again that Jesus Christ also suffered at the hands of life to conquer death and provide for His beloveds an eternity of bliss without pain.  His promises ring true and strong and do not dim with the passing of time! 

If I kept a journal of His promises, my first entry would be these verses given to me so long ago by His Holy Spirit on the day of my mother’s funeral:  “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God; believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself;  that where I am, there you may be also.”  John 14:1-3 (NKJV)

Precious promises, indeed.

What right do I have to walk with head drooping low, no matter what I encounter along the way to my heavenly home?  No matter how many symbolic ‘feathers’ get plucked off me, I am to hold my head high and His promises in my heart and take long, stately steps as I travel through this world to my heavenly abode where I will live forever with my King in utmost joy.

And, so will you, dear friends, if your hands have been placed into the nail-scarred hand of the One who loved us enough to die for us!  What a Savior!  What a God of love, and help, and hope!

No matter what we’ve walked through, what we’re trying to make it through at this very moment, what may come our way tomorrow, there is Scripture-promise for us that will energize us with love and joy and peace and patience along the way.

Christ died to provide, why cannot we search the Scriptures for the help we need?  Knowing full well and confidently believing that He has provided, and will continue to provide, no matter what comes today or tomorrow or the day after that, for every need of life.

Let us hold to His dear hand of help and hope, fully confident in Him alone to secure our safe passage into His very presence!

“But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. … To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy---–to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!  Amen.”                                            Jude 1:20-21, 24-25 (NIV 2011).

¹ Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, excerpts from pages 236-237; Sixty-eighth Printing April 1973.

If you would like a picture of the chicken, please contact me.   Be blessed today!