Matthew 25:31-46

O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

Polly Pullet had no idea that Farmer Brown had been watching her. She would see him going about his business, walking from the farmhouse to the barn, driving his tractor out to the field and back, occasionally sitting on the front porch sipping tea with his wife. Mistress Brown spent a lot of time in her garden, weeding and watering and watching the plants grow. Perhaps she was the one who kept an eye on the chickens.

Whatever, Polly tried to think what she did that might have caused Farmer Brown to recognize her at the great banquet. What did he know about her that she didn’t? What was it she did to earn the honor of being the most humble of the animals? Nothing came to mind.

As she sat and thought, she noticed one of the chicks pecking by herself at a distance from the others. Rosey was having a difficult time adjusting from childhood to adulthood. Just a few days ago, her mother had been attentive to her every need, along with the rest of her hatch. Their mother hovered over them, showing them where the best bugs could be found, which bugs tasted the best, which bugs to avoid. Now, their mother sat in the henhouse on a new batch of eggs, completely ignoring the chicks from her previous batch.

Polly meandered over toward Rosey, pecking as she went. After a while they sat in the shade and talked about growing up, how hard it could be, but also about the joys. Finally Rosey asked, “Why is it, Polly, that whenever I’m feeling lonely and sad, you seem to show up?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Rosey.” Polly grinned, teasing Rosey. “Maybe you send out some kind of message that says you need help.”

“Or maybe you’re just watching,” Rosey replied seriously.

Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me and the light around me become night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

Polly thought carefully about what Rosey said. Watching. Yes, she did keep an eye out for young chicks off by themselves. She remembered an older hen, Miss Milly, who had done the same when she was young. Perhaps Farmer and Mistress Brown were like that.

Now Polly knew her scriptures well, and she remembered the story of Jonah. He thought he could escape from God, that he could run the other way when God asked him to go to Ninevah. But God was watching, even when Jonah was in the hold of the ship, God could see him, and God knew he was going the wrong way.

Polly remembered times when she had thought nobody could see her, when she had gone, near dark, into the garden and pecked some of Mistress Brown’s nice ripe tomatoes. The tomato plants were tall, and one small chicken couldn’t be seen among the leaves. But nearly every time, Miss Milly appeared from nowhere, reminding her that Mistress Brown would share those tomatoes with them later, if they left them alone now.

And other times, when she sat in the dark in the henhouse, having been pecked into submission by some bigger chicken. She just wanted to sit and pout by herself, to feel sorry for herself, to suffer her own pity party. But nearly every time, Miss Milly appeared out of the dark, sometimes just sitting beside her, sometimes clucking softly to her. It seemed that Miss Milly could see as well in the dark as in the daylight. And Polly was glad, because she knew she could count on Miss Milly to be there for her, whatever happened.

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

One of Polly’s favorite memories was one of those dark nights, when Polly and Miss Milly sat together in a corner of the henhouse. Polly was feeling particularly sorry for herself, wondering why she couldn’t do anything right, wondering why she was even hatched.

Miss Milly often quoted scriptures by memory, and this particular night, she selected this part of psalm 139 for Polly. Before she could expand upon it, Polly interrupted, “So if we’re so wonderfully made, why does Miss Hoppy only have one good foot? Why is her other foot a stump? And what about Henny Penny? Why didn’t God give her a good mind, instead of making her crazy, running around claiming that the sky is falling all the time? And why is Chilly always sick?”

“I really don’t know, child,” responded Miss Milly. “You’re asking the same questions I have asked for many years. Perhaps something went wrong in the shell.” Miss Milly paused, searching her heart for a response that would make sense to Polly, searching for a response that offered her comfort. “But I do know this, that we are all children of God, that God loves us all, whatever our defects. Miss Hoppy can’t run as fast as the rest of us, but she still gets around fine. She’s as fat as the rest of us.

“And Henny Penny – she wasn’t always that way. I don’t think God made her that way. I think it had something to do with that acorn that hit her on the head. That’s when she started worrying about the sky falling. And Chilly, she was left outside in the rain one winter night as a young chick. I think that was not good for her.”

Miss Milly scratched her head with her foot. “But I understand that scripture a little differently. To me it says that, in God’s eyes, we are all fearfully and wonderfully made. That God loves us just the way we are, defects and all. We’re all children of God, made in the image of God, which means that each one of us is special, unique, wonderful in our own way. And it’s up to us to recognize that specialness, that childness of God within us and within everyone else.”

Polly thought about a poster she had seen in Farmer Brown’s barn. “Sort of like that poster, ‘Be patient, because God isn’t finished with me yet?”

“Very much so,” replied Miss Milly, as she stretched her wings. “OK, it’s past bedtime.” And Miss Milly left Polly to sit and think as the older hen returned to her perch.

How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them – they are more than the sand; I come to the end – I am still with you. 

The young Polly sat in the dark in the corner, thinking over what Miss Milly had said. Lots of heavy thoughts, lots of unanswered questions, more than she could count! It’s a mystery, trying to understand that which cannot be understood. But she didn’t have to understand. All she had to understand was that God loved her, loves her still, will always love her. Even after Miss Milly was gone.

For consideration:

General Questions

1) How does this story follow its Scripture?

2) How does this story expand its Scripture for you?

3) What is the message of this story?

4) How does the message apply to us today?

Specific Questions:

5) In your own words, what is humility?

6) Why is it important for us to remember that we are children of God?

7) Why is it important for us to remember that everyone else is a child of God?

8) Why should we remember that hate will not conquer hate? What will?