God's Palette

It all started with a chicken.

For a brief few hours in the middle of this January day, the sun came out and it was one of those crisp, beautiful winter days that simply couldn't be spent indoors; at least since it was Monday - my day off - and everyone else in my household was at work or school. (Yeah, I know...I'm spoiled.) So I just HAD to get outside - look around a bit - specifically, look at God's world up close and personal, and just soak it in. Mmmmmm...I need a dose of that regularly, and the more often, the better.

Off to Hovander Park I went. Not as sunny there as at home, but still beautiful in the stark way of a snow-less winter landscape. And there I met THE CHICKEN.

First I met A chicken (not to be confused with THE chicken). It was a fenced-in chicken, mind you. This first chicken was truly a specimen - it was HUGE! Biggest chicken I've ever seen. Its legs were probably as big in diameter as a quarter. Its feathers were primarily white with some black - nothing particularly eye-catching - but the size, oh my!

I started noticing how many varieties of chickens were there: 10 at least, plus a couple kinds of ducks and a number of geese (they all seemed to get along fine, by the way, but the geese came unglued when a gal walked by with her puppy!).

And then, I saw THE CHICKEN.

OK, I'm the first to say that chickens are NOT lovely looking creatures. I've always thought they're kind of creepy, with their scaly legs and their red combs and the herky-jerky way they walk around. But being safely on the other side of the fence, I could just observe. And what I saw, I began to like. This chicken had the most amazing colors in its feathers. Long, narrow, delicate feathers covered its head and cascaded down its neck. They ranged from a deep rust color at the top, to gold, and back to yet another rusty shade before meeting the larger black feathers of the chicken's body.

I was fascinated! Whoever thought a chicken could be SO beautiful. I looked and looked at the richness of those colors and knew they were uniquely God's - His palette. Humans can try all they want but can never duplicate the amazing colors, textures and shapes God crafted into His creation.

I watched more, and walked (sauntered, really), and looked, and breathed, and soaked it all in. I stopped long enough to see the fantastic colors of one chicken's eyes. To watch a chicken waking up from a long sleep. To hear the sparrows chattering to each other. To watch the placid river flow and to listen to the wind in the winter tree branches.

I had brought my Bible along to read, but I didn't need to. God's Word was written all over everything I saw, everything I heard. The rich, deep palette of His creation spoke all I needed to know: God made all this, He made me.

And He loves it all.