145- The Affection of a Chicken

 

St-Takla.org Image: Chick, young chicken. صورة في موقع الأنبا تكلا: كتكوت، فرخة صغيرة، دجاجة صغيرة.

 An American farmer smelt smoke so he listened to the local news. He knew that fire caught the cornfields two weeks before its final growth. He knew that fire during such time is uncontrollable. He knew also that fire would reach his field with the winds and started to think, “What shall I do as fire should burn my field, my house and the barn? I’ll lose everything.”

He started to burn the field in a way so as his house and the barn should not be surrounded by fields of dry corn. He burnt his field but saved his house and the barn. While walking by his field depressed for what he lost, he saw a burnt chicken spreading its wings. He looked at it with tears in his eyes and as he moved it, he found its small chicks running. He looked at the affectionate chicken which had covered its chicks under its body allowing itself to be burnt for their sake. It was burnt without escaping or moving its wings to protect its chicks, while he grieved on material losses. He lifted up his eyes saying, “My beloved Savior! I understand now what You said,

“How often I wanted to gather your children together,

As a hen gathers her brood under her wings.”

I thank You for, though You did not sin, You put Your body to death joyfully to bear the fire of my sins. I thought that fire could destroy You but in Your love, You brought me with Your death to life.”

→ English translation of the story here at St-Takla.org: حنان دجاجة.

The New John

Short Stories (Stories for the Youth) Books by Father Tadros Yacoub Malaty

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