Remember that time you felt alone? The many times you wondered why this is happening to you? The numerous times you felt you did not do anything wrong to deserve the dark times. And you wonder and cry through the difficulties.
There’s a favourite snippet of a moral passage my family loves. It’s something which always come up in discussions randomly and we love hearing and talking it over. The Bible speaks about the phrase “like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings”. It’s a phrase many of us take at a face value. It originally means concern and protection – like how a hen will quickly gather up her brood when she spots an enemy. And we obviously think that is an amazing idea. It shows how God protects us, right?
Right. But – it also shows another side. The “why are we in this” side. When the mother hen sees an enemy preying or flying over, she quickly gathers her small ones under her wings. This isn’t done casually. It’s quick and fast. A second late and she might lose one of her own. So these little ones are all out having the time of their life and enjoying the sun and all of a sudden they are swept under mother’s wings. And then it’s suddenly dark. They are all wondering what just happened. One minute in the light and next in the dark. And remember, it is almost never one. There is usually several of them together. This darkness baffles them. They see these tiny streaks of light from inside and are wondering why they are not in the light. They see food outside. Other animals soaking in the light outside. And they are starting to murmur. They are upset. This is not fair, is it? There’s light outside and they are stuck in darkness. They are unaware of what lies outside. The enemy waiting to pounce on them, the minute they step into the light.
This is exactly how we experience tough phases sometimes. One day, we are living the good life. The next, we are suddenly plunged into darkness. You sit and wonder why this is happening to you. You never did anything wrong to deserve these bad times. And you start questioning. What we sometimes are unaware of, is that this is for our protection.
Our Father saw the devil prancing towards you and decided to hide you from the enemy’s sight. This darkness you are in right now, is because of the protective wings of our Almighty. You are seeing that this darkness is not affecting the world outside. Others are going on with their lives. Happy lives. And you want to be out there. You don’t want this tough phase attached to you.
All you have to realize is that this time the enemy was looking for you and God decided to move you out of his reach. This darkness is just a phase. It will pass. It is tough to understand that the difficult phase may be for good or because He is teaching us a lesson. Isaiah 55:9, “…..so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thought”. All through this, keep your eyes on Jesus. Praise him in the storm. He alone is your “calm” during the storm. Your faith will help you overcome the pain. Trust Him because He is seeing the road ahead of you.
