Is it best to be first or last?

For chickens, it seems it’s always best to be first. When I open the coop’s exit door, a cluster of five hens will make a run out the door and across the yard. They cannot wait to get to where they can find the sunflower seeds fallen from our bird feeders.

They always remind me of golden bowling balls with tiny legs a blur as they race across the lawn. Their fat little bottoms waddling as quick as they can go. They cannot wait to clash over the seeds they find.

The rest of the flock trails behind, but they find plenty for all once they catch up. It is funny how some chickens know there is no need to hurry, while the others must be first. Gertrude is one of the first runners, of course. She always sprints the hardest for the seeds. When the stragglers show up, Gertrude fusses at them and to bully them away from the seeds. They ignore her and pursue the black seeds that fall from the sky, like manna. In the end, they all get what they want and even more than what they need. Some of my chickens are still not laying. At least three or four hens have stopped. There is a way to check their bottoms where their eggs come out. If the egg orifice (vent) is shrunken in size, the chicken is no longer laying. I have decided not to cull out these nonlaying hens. Instead, I treat them the same as those who are laying. They all eat the bugs on my property, and they make me happy. So I will keep them as my pets, whether or not they lay eggs. Thankfully our heavenly Father does not regard us as chickens and does not see us as His pets. His love for us is much deeper and personal. His desire to bless us is unbounded for those who love His Son. Jesus shared the parable below with His disciples. It is a perfect example of His love for us.

The Parable of the Workers – Matthew 20:1-16

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3 About the third hour, he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 ‘You also go into my vineyard,’ he said, ‘and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5  So they went.

He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.

6 About the eleventh hour, he went out and found still others standing around. ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ he asked.

7 ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

So he told them, ‘You also go into my vineyard.’e

8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last ones hired and moving on to the first.’

9 The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came, and each received a denarius. 10 So, when the original workers arrived, they assumed they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarius.

11 On receiving their pay, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’

13 But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Did you not agree with me on one denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. 15 Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

I believe the above parable reveals His heart towards those who have repented and believed in His son, Jesus as their Savior. He desires them all to come into heaven. Not because you have earned your way, but because the depth of love the Father holds for us is unmeasurable. His grace and mercy towards us is an outward expression of this love. Rejoice and Be Blessed in all that you do in the days ahead. Peter D McPheters Please share this post with those whom you feel would enjoy reading it. If you desire, at the very bottom of this post, you will find a place to enter your email address. Then, all future posts are automatically sent to your email account for you to read.