🏳️‍🌈✝️ Under His Wings

Apostolic Faith Church

05/03/2018

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O Jerusalem . . . how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!– Matthew 23:37

My family raised chickens when I was growing up. There were times in the early spring when I would hear a little chorus of “cheep, cheep,” and upon investigation, find that some of our hen’s eggs had hatched. The little chicks would follow their mother around the yard scratching for food. At nightfall, the mother hen would gather all her chicks to her, and they would huddle close to her, protected by her sheltering wings. If we or anything else ever approached a hen when she was caring for her brood, she would attack. Her size versus her opponent’s size was not an issue with her. She was going to protect her chicks, whatever the personal cost. 

This is the picture I get when I read the Scripture in Matthew where Jesus lamented Jerusalem’s rejection of Himself. He longed to have them under His care and protection—a place of warmth, comfort, and safety. He would have provided all their needs and taken care of every concern. What better place could there be? Yet, the Israelites refused His offer.

Jesus longs for us to be under His protection too. When we give our lives to Him, He takes us under His wings, shielding us from the dangers in the world and from the enemy who would devour us. That enemy cannot harm us because Jesus has already given His life so that we can be overcomers; the personal cost was great, but not so great as His love for us.

When we face trials in life or we feel attacked by the enemy of our souls, we need not fight these battles alone. Jesus wants us to take refuge in Him and put our trust in Him. If we stay close to Him, He will protect us. How wonderful it is when we can say along with the lyricist William O. Cushing:

Under His wings I am safely abiding;
Tho’ the night deepens and tempests are wild,
Still I can trust Him; I know He will keep me;
He has redeemed me, and I am His child.