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The metaphor of a hen gathering her baby chicks under her wings is used in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants.
Now I don’t know about you, but when I think of the Son of God a chicken isn’t the first animal that comes to mind. They are pretty much flightless, quite defenseless, and not at all strong or intimidating.
Why would Jesus, the Lion of Judah, want to compare himself to a lowly chicken?
Explaining the as a Hen Gathereth Metaphor
When a mother hen feels threatened she takes action to protect her babies. She will gather them under her wings and protect them with her body. She is willing to offer herself up as a sacrifice in the hopes that her babies will go unnoticed and remain unharmed.
This is what Christ has done for each of us. Through his ultimate sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross he has given himself in order to protect us from Satan. When we are covered in God’s grace then Satan is unable to harm us.
There is another important piece of this metaphor that we need to note. “How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matthew 23:37 KJV translation)
Christ is speaking to those who he wants to protect that won’t let him. As in all other things Christ can not and will not violate our agency. A mother hen can not force a baby chick to stay under her protection. It is up to each of us to choose to come unto Christ and allow him to guard us from the evils of this world.
In the Doctrine and Covenants it is worded “Who will gather his people even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, even as many as will hearken to my voice and humble themselves before me, and call upon me in mighty prayer.” (D&C 29:2)
This verse clearly tells us what we need to do in order to gather ourselves under his wings. We must become humble enough to submit to his guidance and call upon him in prayer for the things that we need protection from.
As a Hen Gathereth Scripture Journaling Tutorial
I saw these adorable chickens on Design Bundles and knew they would be perfect for these verses. I wanted to journal both in my Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 10:4-6) and Bible. I don’t yet have a Doctrine and Covenants to journal in.
First I created a background using Jane Davenport’s Brights watercolors. I absolutely LOVE how saturated her watercolors are. This is my first time using watercolors in my scriptures and I opted to do it without prepping the page first. I decided not to prep because I was doing such a simple background that didn’t require the paints to be able to mix or move on the paper.
Because my page wasn’t prepped I made sure to dab some of the water off my brush onto a paper towel to avoid saturating the page. I also placed a sheet of mixed media paper under the page to protect the rest of my book.
Next I used the fonts Love Letter and Candy Apple to create some word art. I also used the elements in the bright chickens bundle along with a few of my other graphic design elements to create some stickers.
Lucky for you I’ve put the word art and stickers in a handy printable kit which you can get from Worthy Written Words so you won’t have to recreate it on your own! I then printed my word art and images on a sheet of clear sticker paper.
I wasn’t sure exactly which stickers I was going to use where. I decided to cut them all out then lay them out and settle on my final arrangement before taking the protective backing off.
Once I settled on the arrangement I removed the protective background and stuck my stickers to the page. I also created a journaling tip-in that I placed in my scriptures using washi tape.
I love using tip-ins to put my journaling on because it leaves me with plenty of room and options for adding more journaling to a page later if I have additional thoughts or inspirations for that page.
As you can see there is a little bit of page wrinkling due to the watercolor paints. It is already flattening out a bit due to the pressure of the book being shut, and I’m optimistic it will be completely flat in a few days.
List of Supplies
- As a Hen Gathereth Scripture Journaling Kit
- Interleaved Bible
- Rosenvall Book of Mormon
- HP DeskJet 3720 color printer
- Avery Clear full sheet labels (these are matte, you can also use the glossy clear sticker paper)
- Jane Davenport Mixed Media Petite Pallete Brights (watercolor)
- Washi Tape (sorry couldn’t find the one I used, but isn’t this cute!)
- Winsor and Newton Cotman Mop Paintbrush
I love how you explained the metaphor about a mother hen protecting her chicks. There’s three references in 3 Nephi 10 about gathering and are particularly of interest for the tenses used by the Lord. He says in verses 4-6:
“How oft have I gathered you” (4)
“How oft would I have gathered you” (5)
“How oft will I gather you” (6)
It’s beautiful isn’t it? It’s beautiful the Lord’s eternal work never stops.
There’s actually a formula indicated for being gathered. First in D&C 10:65 we read the Lord says “I will gather them…if they will not harden their hearts”. Second, in D&C 29:2 we see that we also need to hearken to His voice, humble ourselves before Him, and call upon Him in mighty prayer. We know it is the Lord’s great desire to gather his people, but we must have soft hearts, hearken to His voice, be humble, and call on Him in mighty prayer.
Here’s another great article on this topic
https://scripturenotes.com/as-a-hen-gathereth-her-chickens?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=study_topic_1_as_a_hen_gathereth_her_chickens&utm_term=2020-02-17