I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 24th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 23:37. Jesus said:

“How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”

Have you ever seen a mother hen, the way she fusses over her little chicks? It is quite something to see. One of my daughters has got a big flock of chickens, little bantam chickens. They are minute in size and they strut around the farmyard, picking up all the insects and making a big noise. They are beautiful! I remember a story like yesterday that I was told from a pastor in the Eastern Cape, many, many years ago. When they were burning fire-breaks on the mighty Drakensberg Mountains, as winter was approaching, that grass burnt very, very quickly, and they finished burning a massive break on the side of the mountain and they were doing a clean-up operation, and as they were walking they found a partridge that had been caught in the fire and it was lying face-down with it’s wings spread out. And as they walked up to this partridge, they turned the partridge over and underneath the partridge was a clutch of little chicks. The mother had protected her chicks from the fire by giving her life up. That is how Jesus is with you and me!

We need to know that He loves you so, so much, more than you will ever realise. In Israel, in Jerusalem, you have the Mount of Olives, and on the side of the Mount of Olives is a little chapel. It is formed in the shape of a teardrop, and you can go into that little chapel and there is a huge window and you can look out of that window and look straight across from the Mount of Olives, through the Kidron Valley, up the other side, and there is the Old City of Jerusalem, and that is where Jesus wrote this. He wept over Jerusalem.

Jesus today is weeping over us. Folks, do not harden your heart against the Lord. He loves you so very much, like that partridge, He too has put His arms out to protect you and I. He died for our sins so that we could have a second chance. Let us love Him and serve Him with all our hearts today. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.