Scoop from the Coop 

Lesson on Being Merciful | by Emmalea Butler

" . . . walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" Ephesians 4:1-3 (ESV).

WHO KNEW that my chickens would inspire spiritual lessons!

I knew GOD had to be in this for several reasons:

1. It’s the first pet (besides a fish) that my husband didn’t tell me “No WAY!”

2. My husband found a very cute (pre-assembled) chicken coop at farming store for HALF PRICE!

3. A Pastor’s wife (friend) saw the photo of the coop on a Facebook post and decided she wanted to give me two mature laying hens and four – 1 month old chicks…FREE!!!

The 2nd morning of being a new Crazy Chicken Woman I had a wonderful surprise – again! The 2nd egg was delivered! I was told that the “girls, Jamimah and Beulah,” would most likely be traumatized by the move and would require getting used to their new environment before they'd lay eggs. However, “Ms. Beulah” settled in just fine. It’s our 2nd day in a row to receive a gift from her!

After my husband, Ted, discovered egg #2, he called me outside to the chicken coop to alert me of our first crisis! Seems the two big hens had "had it" with sharing the small space with the four month old baby chicks. The big girls were pecking on the baby chicks! 

We quickly put the babies upstairs in the nesting box area with their own food and water and shut the door on the ramp that goes up to the area, so the big gals couldn’t get to them. 

The older girls seem quite content now in the “downstairs” with full run of the lower level with their own food and water. We will switch this around later in the day.

In this small coop that these hens have been placed, it didn't take long till the newness of their surroundings wore off and nitpicking at the “babies” started. Soon the new chicks were being injured. After all – they are chickens – so WHY can’t they act like the BIG ones that brought them into this world?! 

As I tried to console the chicks (that haven't even bonded with me yet) the situation reminded me of what sometimes happens in too many churches when new "baby" Christians are nitpicked by "older" Christians.

Have you witnessed it too? Older Christians pray for new converts. But when the new babes in Christ arrive, some of the mature Christians get tired of them not acting like real Christians and begin nitpicking on them till the newest babes in Christ are wounded. It’s also difficult for the newbies to trust others who try to console them. Do we not remember what being new in Christ and church was like? There can be so much confusion with a new way of life and in the new surroundings of Christianity. 

2 Corinthians 5:17 is a very encouraging description for a new believer, and it can also stand as a good warning label – reminding the “seasoned Christians” to remember what it was like in the early days of becoming a Christ Follower. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (ESV)

No matter where we attend church, we need to be prayerful and super loving to new baby Christians. We must help them to grow by being a good example of what we older Christian "Chicks" should be. After all, we were babies once too! 

MERCY! GOD is still teaching me --- from a chicken coop no less! (even though I might be Bawk Bawk Bawking!)

Copyright 2016 Emmalea Butler <E><

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