I Would Have Gathered You

     "The sky is falling; the sky is falling!" I am remembering the story of  chicken little who yelled these words when an acorn hit her head one day, reacting out of fear, and influenced her friends to be afraid also.
     There are a lot of conspiracy theories out there today. Some are acorns; some are not. Since we have access to the internet and can hear about all the gruesome and terrible things that are happening in the world, it can influence us to be afraid, and it's hard to discern which things to be aware of, and which ones to disregard. Our intense preoccupation with these things, can only add to our awareness, which, if we don't watch it, can turn into fear.
     Then my thoughts go to Jesus when He was saying that He wanted to put Israel under His wings, like a mother chick does her babies, but they wouldn't be comforted, and this grieved Him so. He wants that same thing for us, too. He wants us to trust Him so much, that we "stay put," under the shadow of His wing. Only in that place, do we have protection; maybe not physical protection always, but truly eternal. And that is where peace is.
     How do we stay there? We get out of the way, and let Him lead. I am finding out that the less I try and do, and be in control of, the better off I am, because it is then, that He takes over, and I experience peace. What makes me vulnerable is my pride, which really believes it can handle things better. Oh, how it gets us in trouble every time. We get out from under His protective hand, an acorn hits us on the head, and we find ourselves saying that "the sky is falling" and then try and convince others of the same thing. We find ourselves in fear and panic, and then we run back under His hand of grace for protection. Why don't we just stay there? When we learn to do that, we won't be "chicken little", anymore, but we will be the blessed little chicks, all warm and comforted by our Nurturing and Loving Shepherd. Which chick would you rather be?