The Significance of Chickens Clucking

I decided to lay out in our back yard today while Lucy was sleeping since it was such a beautifully sunny afternoon with a cool breeze blowing through. While I was laying there with the straw grass prickling me, something unexpected happened: I heard the clucking of chickens! Chickens? Really? {Although I'm not too surprised...this is Moody, AL}. Anyway, I immediately had this deja vu feeling, sort of like how certain smells instantly transform you back to another moment in time, and the memory is so vivid it could be re-occuring in real time. As I was laying there listening to these chickens cluck in the distance and feeling the breeze roll across my face, I was transformed back to the porch of a good friend of mine whom I lived with for a few weeks while I spent the summer in Nicaragua during my college days. She is Celtina, and I have blogged about her before here. It was a sweet memory, absent only of the smell of fresh mango and limeade that accompanied it back then. And I was thankful that God has given her to me as a friend, and for the ministry that He has given her to orphans and street children. She mentioned in her email to me this week to pray for her as she had a 12-year old girl come to stay at their children's home last week who is 7-months pregnant by a 70-year old man who had abused her. I can not imagine the emotional trauma of this situation, or what Celtina and her husband Misael must be facing as they contemplate adopting the infant as their own once this child gives birth. The girl wants to return to her family following the delivery, and she wants nothing to do with the baby as she is a painful reminder of the abuse she endured. And to think that Celtina has befallen upon this tragedy in the midst of providing a home for 9 other children who have horrific stories of their own, and 30 who come to her house each day for the only meal they will eat that day. There are no formal grief counseling centers or child psychologists to help these children cope. There's no medication or post-traumatic stress treatments to offer. Just her, her husband, and their sweet 2-year old Patrick, who love the Lord and are simply being obedient to his commands of loving His children well. I don't know how she does it on a daily basis, how they make ends meet to provide for these children, or how she handles situations like this one that are just dropped before her like a bomb. And those were my thoughts as I was lying there in the grass hearing the chickens cluck in the distance. And I was thankful that God uses little "interruptions" in our day to remind us of His goodness despite the plethora of tragedy in this world. I only hope that one day this 12-year old girl will also be sitting beneath the sun feeling the breeze upon her face, and when she hears the chickens cluck in the distance, she will be reminded of God's goodness to her in the midst of this terrible tragedy in her life. What connects me to her is not the chickens clucking, but our friend who is obedient to our Lord. For that, I am thankful. And I hope that one day the Lord will use me in such a mighty way as He is using Celtina.