The little hen waits at the chicken coop door. The other chickens want their food. She wants a tender look. The other chickens are strong and proud. She is meek and sweet. They eat first. She eats last. She watches me come and watches me go, the one who nourishes her. Always watching for me, the little hen with her broken beak.

Last spring she came to us as a chick. Lost in a fluff pile of other chicks from the feed store. Her little, shattered beak a death sentence. We bought her that way. Already broken.

Yet, it was her brokenness that endeared her to us. The boys held her in their grubby little boy hands as she learned to live a different way. Dependent.

The other chicks so self-seeking. Strong. Healthy. Full of themselves.

The little hen needy. Weak. Waiting. Full of hope in a healer. Growing strong because of brokenness.

How well I understand this little hen. Need has taught her love. In brokenness she has become more than the strong. I am her keeper and I keep her first. Watch over her best. Love her most because she loves me. My broken little hen.

Lord watch over us. May we be your broken ones. The ones who watch for you. Hope in you. Love you.

“I love them that love me” Proverbs 8:17.

“Because he loves me,” says the LORD,
“I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he
acknowledges my name.
He will call upon me, and I will
answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation” Psalm 91:14-16.