So there was this frozen chicken.
NOT the Perdue kind from the store; a real chicken, feathers and all – frozen, at the top of the steps to our house.
As an adult I was pretty sure the chicken had frozen to death, but to my young children yelled “NOOO the chicken can’t be dead!” My tenderhearted son of nine, with tears in his eyes carried that frozen chicken into the house, and wrapped it in a blanket and sat for hours with it in his lap getting warm by the wood stove. I personally thought the story was going to have a different ending.
I underestimated the power of love and the fierce faith of a child.
Hours later, the chicken had thawed enough to give out a faint cluck. To say a party erupted is putting it lightly! Cheers and dancing and cries of joy – the frozen chicken had come back to life!
The frozen chicken had come back to life!
(And in spite of this miracle it still did not get to become a house pet, but it wasn’t for dinner either. And no chickens were harmed in this TRUE story. )
I Corinthians 13:4-7 – “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
Sometimes we give up on people. We think they are unreachable or beyond hope or unlovely or maybe cold as ice. (Pun intended). What to do with people like that? Just love them.
Let me say that again – just love them.