My owner’s wife had to travel down to Plymouth for her pre-op. checks the other day. So while she was there, she decided to visit a nearby chicken farm and bring home a companion bird for our one remaining chicken, Hazel. As you can imagine, I wasn’t overjoyed about another new bird joining our family set-up, but I didn’t have a say in the matter.
Now, the chicken farm was rather like a chicken city, with thousands of birds strutting their stuff in neatly defined holding pens. There were various flocks of white, grey, brown and black chickens. There were chickens with ridiculous top-nots and feathery feet. In fact, they had just about every type of chicken known to science there.
My owner’s wife opted for a ‘Devon Bronze,’ so an assistant entered the Devon Bronze pen armed with a net on a pole. And the Devon Bronzes knew exactly what was coming because they miraculously parted from around the legs of the assistant, rather like the waters of the Red Sea when the Israelites needed to cross. But eventually, a healthy young hen was captured, and after a bit of a struggle, placed inside a cardboard box.
The new hen was promptly christened ‘Heidi,’ and placed in the back of my owner’s car. Now, because Heidi kept trying to stick her head up through the flaps of the box, my owner’s wife decided to lay her heavy boots across the top to make sure she couldn’t escape during the journey home.
Two hours later, they pulled into the driveway outside our house, and it was only then that they discovered that the pair of heavy boots had fallen through the cardboard flaps and had been pinning Heidi down to the bottom of the box. Even I found myself muttering ‘poor bird.’ Then when she was introduced to Hazel, the greeting she received was a sharp peck to the wattle. And that night, Hazel didn’t allow her to roost up the comfortable end of the hen house. No, she had to make do with the draughty end. And despite everything that had happened to her, the following morning, Heidi still managed to lay an egg. Okay, it was a bit small, but she still made the effort and did her best. Which is probably how we all need to approach life, especially when we find things a bit challenging. Because if we can remain strong and keep on giving to the world while the tempests rage and the very ground beneath us shakes, we will one day reap our reward in Heaven.
“Adversity is the diamond dust heaven polishes its jewels with.”
(Robert Leighton: [1611-1684]: Scottish prelate, scholar and Archbishop of Glasgow)
“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
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