I've a daughter who months ago decided that they were going to raise chickens....hens that is, so that they could have a steady supply of fresh eggs. It's been a treat to sit back and see this whole process of raising chickens. And, because it doesn't seem to entail an awful lot of work, I am slightly envious of them....but we can't have chickens in the residential area we live in and they live on 5 rural acres.
The chickens came as chicks....hand picked, so to speak, by my daughter, who picked them by the way they looked. There are multiple color schemes (if that term applies to chicks, I don't know) and feather arrangements. Since her goal was to have free range chickens (chickens that will roam around the yard but not run off) it was a neat process. When small, the chicks were released from their chick home into the yard after getting used to being outside for an hour or two each day, and then became used to being handled by human hands to be rounded up and returned to the chick home. As they grew, they were relegated to the chicken coop (a way oversized dog house, built specifically for chickens, complete with a fenced in yard--part of the coop). A regular regime of human handling took place, as they learned there are times they are free to roam in the "big yard", before going home..to the chicken coop and it's front yard. So now she has free range chickens that will stay in the big yard until they hear something (in chicken talk I suppose) that lets them know it's time to go home....and they do.
They are layers (fresh eggs) and they found that some of the chickens get confused by their individual "bedrooms" within the coop...that area where they individually nest, and by the way, drop their daily egg(s). Problem solved ! They bought a few glass eggs for those less than brilliant hens that couldn't figure out where to lay their eggs, placed them in their particular nesting area, and bango...the eggs started dropping. Who'd a thunk it...glass eggs as a stimulus or learning tool !
As we individually struggle to do what should come naturally (after all, shouldn't striving to be a follower of Christ be a natural part of us?), it seems that perhaps we need a glass egg once in a while to help us do what we need to do. Case in point....during a conversation (multiple people) the other evening, I evidently said something crude, sarcastic, wrong, or perhaps even laced with a word or two that just doesn't match up to what I am trying to be....a man of God. I have no idea what it was that I said or what the topic was even about. What I do know is that some kind soul who loves me (another guy with a good heart) simply made a comment to me that was a glass egg. He reminded me that I wasn't sounding like the guy that writes the blog (he's a subscriber to this). Point well taken !! The glass egg he put on me was accountability and correction.
That episode caused me to take pause and do a bit of introspection. Chickens are chickens, and laying eggs is part of the natural process of being one. The glass eggs just kind of jog their internal "memory" and remind then of what they are supposed to do. I'm not a chicken. And because of my past and present brokenness, it is really difficult at times to do my egg thing in the manner in which intellectually I know I should. So I really do need some glass eggs to remind me of the walk I have chosen to follow and am striving to accomplish...that of being a fully devoted follower of Christ.
Do you need glass eggs?
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