Hatch or go Bad!
There’s another end result for eggs which yesterday I did not mention. In fact, it is an egg’s primary purpose. Don Longworth alluded to it in his message this past Sunday. The primary purpose and hoped for end result of every egg is to grow to become a living entity – a baby chick!
God plants this purpose in every egg. It is not a matter of chance. Consider the accuracy and patterning of God in His design for the hatching of these eggs…
- potato bug eggs hatch in 7 days;
- canary eggs hatch in 14 days;
- barnyard hen eggs hatch in 21 days;
- duck and geese eggs hatch in 28 days;
- mallard eggs hatch in 35 days;
- parrot and the ostrich eggs hatch in 42 days.
Each of these durations is divisible by seven. Is that an odd coincidence or is it evidence of design?
Scripture informs us that God has also a design for you and I! Fallen sinners though we may be, His intent is to make us – each one of us – holy like Himself, saints forever perfect. But we must accept that plan, acknowledge we are far less than holy now, and rely on His redemption in Christ — not merely content ourselves with becoming painted decorations slowly turning rotten on the inside. To be growing “eggs” we must break through all barriers, smash that shell, reach out and grasp hold of God, accepting His will in all He plans to make of us.
C.S. Lewis comments,
“When He said, ‘Be perfect,’ He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder—in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”- CS Lewis, Mere Christianity
God intends for you and I to fly! Impossible now, but inevitable then — for all who receive that Way made known to us and which we commemorated this past Easter.
The wise among us will work with Him to this end. We will peck away at that confining shell, smash a leg through its wall, struggle and twist… push and break… peck some more! We will glimpse through its opening… see the bright light… hear His familiar Voice… ever clearly… and one day break full through.
Paul describes his commitment. It has become mine also, and I pray too will becomes yours…
“…I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:12b-14).
“All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things,” He adds. Do not let your heart and mind be scrambled. Christ is “the Way, the Truth, the Life” (see John 14:6). Do not let your conscience be fried. Heed that “still, small entreating Voice” of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Kings 19:12). There is life, “abundant life,” (see John 10:10) outside the shell of this temporal place. You know it. You feel it already pushing outward from your soul. This cannot be all there is. This is not all there is!
Surrender! – Hatch! – Fly!
More tomorrow…
To hear Don Longworth’s Sunday message, go to the Facebook page of Lincoln Baptist Church, or link to the livestream from the church website.
thebrokenrunner 