Come in from the cold

‘Often I have longed to gather your children... as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.’ Matthew 23:37 NIV

Andrea Midgett writes: ‘One winter night years ago, I went outside to check on the animals in my father’s barn. It was so cold, the water in the horses’ trough had frozen solid. As I went to get an axe to chop through the ice, I noticed a hen perched nearby with several chicks tucked under her wings. She had turned her face and frail body into the storm, her wings outstretched, covering them securely. Suddenly I was uplifted by this picture of Jesus caring for me. But it struck me that those chicks had to come to the mother hen first. Maybe she chased some of them around the yard. Maybe others came willingly. Maybe some were still out there half-frozen. (There were a few late arrivals perched on top of her wings). I only know that the ones underneath had allowed themselves to be gathered up and protected. They’d quit fighting what they couldn’t control. They’d acknowledged that they needed somebody bigger than themselves, who was willing to save them. When I see the cross, I think of the outstretched arms of Jesus. There He is, dying a slow and terrible death with his arms wide open, saying to us, “Often I have longed to gather [you]... as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” The cross is God’s invitation to you to stop struggling and come in from the cold. Why don’t you come today?

The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright © 2025