Easter Chicks

When I was just a boy, one year at Easter my Dad bought my brother and I a couple of baby chicks. One was blue and one was yellow. I am sure this was their natural color. (Not!) We brought the chicks home and let them roam in our back yard. Amazingly enough they seemed very healthy and happy there. Soon they lost their blue and yellow color and grew into very normal looking chickens. All day long they would just scratch and peck and roam our rather large back yard. They got fat and big and then one day they were gone.

That evening we gathered around the table for our evening meal and we said thanks for the bounty that was set before us. We had mashed potatoes, green beans, homemade bread, and the most delicious fried chicken I had ever tasted! It seemed as if it was fresh off the farm!

At some point, my brother and I who must have been as "dumb as a bag of hammers" made the connection between the missing chickens in the backyard and the finger licking good supper we had just consumed. How can you weep over fried chicken? We did.

My brother and I remembered how cute they were, how cuddly they were, and wept great big crocodile tears, as we digested what had happened.

A few weeks later we both received new puppy dogs, given to us from a neighbor friend. We both thought about the future and told Mom that we did not want these puppies. "But why", Mom said, "you have been begging for puppies for so long?" We both teared up and then she knew.

Dad explained that we did not eat dogs - dogs fetch balls, catch Frisbees, and chase cars. Dogs are man's best friend - we do not eat dogs. This assurance helped us receive the puppies with great joy.

One day my brother, who was known for his wisdom, said to me, within the hearing of my Dad, "It is hard to be a chicken."

This became a favorite bit of wisdom passed down in our family - someday it may appear in my brothers first volume of wisdom for the common man.

Feel free to use this wisdom any way that best suits your needs - it can be used at work, in family life, even as a sermon illustration, in a blog entry, and someone should put it on a bumper sticker.

Have a joyous Easter - the true message of Easter has nothing to do with baby chicks and dimwitted brothers - it is a message of life, life in the Son, life abundant and everlasting!

That is something worth celebrating!

Just thinking, Steve