Chicken Little

So...I have chickens, and after observing them for several years, I have come to understand a bit of chicken psychology:  A chicken's day pretty much revolves around its belly.  Chickens love food, and they love you if you have food.  They will come running when they see you, and cackle until you give them food.  If you want to lead a flock of chickens somewhere, shake a container of food, and they will follow you.  On the weekends in the summer, I let them free-range, and when I want to put them in for the evening, I lure them into the house with a bucket of food, and close the door, and they are ready to go.  However, in this particular batch of chickens, there is one chicken that stands out. 

 Her name is Dum-Dum. 

 I know, that is a very dumb name, but she is a very dumb chicken.  I have never seen one like her.

This is a picture of her:

She is an Easter Egger chicken...a very dumb, self-willed Easter Egger chicken.  When all the other chickens would blindly and willingly follow the food to the chicken house, Dum-Dum wanted her freedom.  She would stand outside with a blank look on her face, like she didn't know why all the others would go inside when there was so much of the world to explore outside the house.  She would take at least 15-20 minutes each day to convince to go inside, much to my consternation.  I actually thought about just leaving her to her demise several times, and then thought better of it, since I had already invested 5 months of food into her.  

 Well, a couple weeks ago, at the beginning of December, she decided to sneak out the door when I was feeding the other chickens.  There was some snow on the ground, and most of my chickens won't go outside when they see snow on the ground.  She thought it was some kind of adventure!  I tried to catch her, but she would have none of that!  She took off into the woods, so I just left her, and hoped she'd come back.  The next day, she was still there, by the hay shed.  That was pretty surprising, since the chicken-killing critters come out big time once it gets cold.  Hannah and Ruth were with me, so we all tried to catch her.  She took off, deep into the woods, and there was no getting her back.  Needless to say, she wasn't there the next day.

Fast forward a couple of weeks.  Like I said, when it's cold, the chicken-loving creatures come out.  "Chicken-loving" doesn't mean they like to be with chickens, it means they like to eat chickens!  I saw some pretty large possum tracks outside the chicken house, so I set a live trap

The only good possum is a dead one

The next day, I checked the trap, and there wasn't anything in it.  I was a little wary, since I really do not like possums, and didn't want to tangle with one.  As I was closing up the house, I heard animal footsteps coming through the snow.  Oh no!  Most possums and coons don't come out in the daytime, and if they do, 

they're usually sick!  I hid around the side of the house to see what it was.  

Lo, and behold, who should appear but Dum-Dum!  She had been out for two weeks!  I consider that pretty incredible, considering we had sub-zero temps and a large possum on the loose!  She was a little skinny, but otherwise fine.  She carefully picked her way through the snow.  I opened the door, and when she went to investigate what her chicken friends were doing, I booted her into the house and slammed the door.  

That made my day!  

I find an interesting human parallel here: 

How often do I think I know better than my Lord? 

How often do I wait to do what I should do now?  

How often do I go "off into the woods" to enjoy what they hold, instead of enjoying the safety of the boundaries God has set for me?

One thing I know: God is always ready to welcome wayward people when they come back to him with a repentant heart!

Learn from this dumb cluck!