The few pictures above of a mother hen and her chicks in a garden, drew my attention, to become familiar with a hen's way of getting her chicks ready to find feed on their own.
The mother hen would scratch the surface to dig into the subsoil to find seeds and insects and move further away from the chicks. The chicks would then pick food from the subsoil.
I noticed some chicks scratching the surface on their own and moving away in different directions. That was the time when the mother hen moved out of their sight at a short distance away. When the chicks were getting scattered, the hen gathered them around her to comfort them with the security of her proximity.
This cycle of the hen assisting the chicks to find food, leaving the chicks to fend food themselves, and regathering them to herself, was a cycle of behaviour I noticed as I watched this moving sight for about 20 minutes.
In the Biblical narration, there is a reference by Jesus of Nazareth about His desire to gather people to Himself, like a hen gathering her chicks to herself (Matt23:37). Jesus said, 'you were unwilling'!
I noticed similar behaviour with the chicks in the above flock. The chicks sometimes drifted and made loud bird calls to get mother hen's attention to get them back to the fold.
Their is a relational story in the behaviour of the hen and chicks. The hen readies the chicks and the chicks respond. The hen seeks after them when they drift. That is similar to the parable of the Good shepherd Jesus of Nazareth spoke about. The shepherd leaving the ninety nine went out to look for the one that was lost (Luke 15:1-7).
I felt refreshed by the sight of a mother hen and her chicks growing up together, the mother hen letting go and the chicks finding the freedom to be themselves and yet feeling secure in the shelter the mother hen offered to them. What a lesson in nurturing to grow up!
I discovered some sound foundations for child development. A mother in her role as the enabler!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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