"Good grief, Mom! You need to do something about that rooster of yours!" Ryan said when he returned from feeding. I laughed. I'd had a little encounter with that rooster myself, but we had gotten our differences worked out, and we had been getting along nicely ever since. "Why? What happened?" "You are not gonna believe this! I walked in with the feed and he jumped right on my head! He tried to spur me! I about never got him off me! Can you believe that?" Yes, actually, I could believe it, but he'd been doing so well lately that his new shenanigans caught me off my guard. "I should have warned you. He thinks he's in charge of the chicken pen and very particular about who comes in and out." "Particular is not the word I'd use for it. You need to watch out for him!"When I went in the chicken pen to feed this morning, the rooster was on the tail board, watching the door. As I walked in, he clearly eyed me, considering his options. "Don't even try it," I told him, and he didn't. We're getting along much better. After I finished at the barn and headed back to the house, I thought about how much better the rooster is doing, at least with me. He has a way to go yet, but my bossy rooster has learned a little about submitting to the one that is ultimately in charge of the chicken pen.
It's one of those lessons we'd all do well to learn, too. Perhaps the first thing we need to learn is that we are not really in charge of anything. No matter how much we think we are in charge, we are not. Our little "chicken pen" may look like the entire universe to us, but it's just a dot in the sky in comparison to all God owns, and He is firmly, completely in charge. Where the boss is concerned, my rowdy rooster has relinquished his fantasy of control. He is minding his manners and doing what he's told, and maybe that's what we should do, too. Swap control for submission and give the One in charge the respect He deserves.
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