Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Dean Kelly

It had gotten down to her last three chickens. My wife loves the chickens, and our grandchildren love them, especially two of my granddaughters. Then, in one night, the two favorites, Brown Chicken and Crow (names were influenced by our granddaughter), were killed by an unknown invader inside their enclosure. Only the most skittish of the chickens, named Sapphire, survived.

When my wife first went back to see her, Sapphire was making sounds that could only be described as mournful calls that seemed to be calling for her lost friends. Suddenly, she was alone. But a sweet thing began to happen. Instead of being skittish like she had been, she began to bond with our oldest granddaughter and my wife. She began to run to them instead of away from them. Extra measures have been taken to try to keep her safe from whatever the killer was. She has gone from being forced to go into the safe spot, to willingly going in. She has always been a “talker” with her clucks seeming to have different meanings. Now she clucks contentedly when her “people” are there for her. But, she still seems to miss her fellow chickens. Chickens need other chickens in their lives because they are social beings.

Like chickens need companionship, humans need someone in their life with whom to share their world. God saw that it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18) and so He created the woman so that they could share life together (Genesis 2:24). 

I was called at one point to preach the funeral for a woman who had passed away and had left it in her will that she wanted a preacher from the church of Christ to speak. I got to the graveside for the service, and there was a nurse from the nursing home where she had lived, and one funeral director, and me. It hurt my heart to stand there and think that she died totally alone. I cannot imagine a life lived so alone. 

No matter what else, for the Christian, we are never alone. Jesus promised to be with us (Matthew 28:20). God will never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Our hope is secured at the cross. For true companionship  let’s meet there.

 

Dean Kelly is minister at Highland Home Church of Christ.