Often it appears we really know better, when we actually know nothing at all.

This past week one of our silly chickens has hatched a brood of 3 chicks. We were a little surprised by this - the chicken would sit on a nest for a few days, then move over to another net and sit there instead. We'd pick up her eggs very carefully from the first nest and lay them next to her. Sure enough after a few minutes she'd cram them under her and sit there for a few days. But after a few more days she'd move to a new nest, and we'd do this again. I was just sure she was sitting on four dead eggs, I mean this crazy cluck kept leaving them sitting there in the cold and tried to hatch golf balls (different story there).

Anyhow, in the end it worked out and we moved her to her own private maternity digs, where she and the chicks have their own fancy food, water, and red warming light. The temptation of course was to take her babies and raise them in the house ourselves. Let me tell you why that was a temptation.

Because a year ago we got 15 three-day-old chicks in the mail and raised them in a box successfully, so we're proven winners there. Because it sure seemed like this mother hen didn't know the first thing about how to sit on eggs, so why should we expect her to raise them right? Finally, because it just seems like as thinking, intelligent beings we know better than any dumb old bird and would do a better job at it.

But now let me tell you why we should NOT. Because we were lucky the first time and easily could have killed them all by making a single mistake. Because the one who would do the best job is the one who thinks of nothing else than their best interest (my hen is ready to peck me or anything else if I stick my hand in there or get too close, where as I am busy doing work, etc and ignore them for hours.) Finally, because the mother hen loves them, knows the exact temp to keep them, and is designed by God for this specific purpose. The fact that chickens thrive proves their experience at it is very successful.

Besides, the odds are if I raise them in a box some of them will die. I was very lucky, but overall chicks do better with a mother than a box, no matter how nice I provide things for them. It is just the way it is, and while I might in a pinch make a good mother I will never be the BEST mother they could have. Those raised without a mother are almost always weaker and less robust than those who are raised by a mother hen. It is obvious even though we don't understand why. We think we know something, but we actually know nothing at all.

My mother taught me to pray. She also taught me to be honest, to read, to share, to be confident, and sometimes to laugh. My father taught me to work hard to get things, how to catch fish, and some things called honor, patience, and integrity. I suppose I could have been raised in a box, perhaps some of you suspect that I was, without parents. I could have turned out fine, and there are many who have. But God designed me to be raised by those who love me, keep me at the exact temp, and will bite anyone who comes near to harm me.

In a couple weeks it will be Mother's Day, and a month after that Dads get their due, too. Like my hen, parents do make mistakes but usually they get it right. Truth be told, even with their mistakes they do better than anyone else in raising us. No one ever loves us more than our parents, perhaps not even our spouses, and this is especially when we are unlovable selfish bratniks, except for our creator of course. God made parents that way. In a few weeks my chicks will see their mother as just another chicken in the flock, but I would hope we could do better. That we might appreciate the uncountable things our parents did for us, the times they feared for us, and the times they carried us when we were helpless to help ourselves. You know, the times they were... parents.

God designed them to be this way. If it still appears we really know better, then we actually know nothing at all. Even a trio of fluffy birds can teach you that!

Randy