Egg-Eater

Published by christi on January 26, 2023

About six months ago we bought four fuzzy featherballs, hoping for fresh eggs.

It’s felt like a long wait. Last week we started finding the treasures we anticipated! Instead of the blue eggs I was told to expect, they have been pinkish tan and a deep russet. The first one was small; by day 5, I held an extra-large in my hand! So exciting, I know!

The problem is:  Curious birds that they are, they discovered that eggs are good to eat. (Chickens have no scruples.)  A couple of ceramic eggs planted by me in the nesting boxes have kept eggs laid there safe. (They figured out there was no good pecking those eggs; they got nothing but a headache.) Today, one got laid on the ground and by the time I saw it, they had demolished and devoured it! GRRRR!

The whole point of building the mobile coop, investing in a metal garbage can to store the 50 pound bag of food, going out on frosty mornings to break the ice in their waterer and see that they have adequate food is so that WE can eat the eggs. That’s the main point of having them.

It reminds me of something Jesus said in John 15 about bearing fruit:  It is what gives God glory. It’s what He is looking for from us! “Fruit that remains,” Jesus said, comes from “abiding,” living a life of constant contact and dependency on God. That same abiding results in living a life of Jesus’ kind of love for one another and for those humans we consider our enemies.

On our own, we may be able to produce something that looks like fruit, but if it does not remain, or does not nourish, we are being egg-eaters. Sometimes our “fruit” might actually harm others. Our self-righteousness is a poison that pretends to be fruit. We may be cured by repentance and being washed by the blood of Jesus, but damage may have already been done to others.

Join me in asking the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts.

Spirit of God, cure me of egg-eating by my self-righteousness.

As I seek to follow Jesus, I must take care that I am not destroying the very thing that God is after.

With a little egg on my face,

Following Jesus every day in the everyday,

Christi