Quail and Manna

Last Sunday our service was about the Israelites complaining in the desert. After they couldn’t take the wilderness one more day, they began to romanticize about their captivity in Egypt and actually longed to GO BACK. Go back to being slaves in Egypt! Like a bad breakup you can never quite get over. It wasn’t really that bad, was it? The good times were worth the abuse, right? … ? Not really.

So God provided quail and manna to sustain the grumbling masses.

And as an illustration, they asked me to provide some quail for the service!

They were right up in front of the church and provided a nice accent to the excellent sermon, scampering around and craning their little necks to look out at the people looking at them.

There was a children’s activity outdoors after the service and I answered a lot of questions about my older quail and gave out hard boiled quail eggs for the kids to sample.

I brought some babies too, since I had week-old hatchlings. They baby quail I left just inside the church door out away from any drafts. There was a hot water bottle snuggled under the straw bedding. The kids were invited to sanitize their hands and hold the little birds gently, under parental supervision.

There was one golden chick in this hatch, but when I went to select the babies I was going to take to church, I couldn’t find him. I was in a hurry so I grabbed up a handful of fluff and off we went.

When I got back after our exciting Sunday morning, I saw that the water bucket was empty and I picked it up to refill it. Underneath the bucket was the missing chick! Squished almost flat, he was still alive but just barely. I put him under the heat lamp to dry out while I refilled that water and placed it CAREFULLY on the shavings.

Several days later, the chick is still small and bedraggled, but hasn’t given up yet.

Best I can figure, he was under the water bucket for two days. Tough little guy.

Reflections from Sunday’s sermon at Community Mennonite Church. In what ways have you forgotten how God has delivered you? What has been your manna and quail, your sustenance and relief, during this year of COVID and upheaval?

Looking after the quail–and all the other living things at HomeAgain Farm–has been my manna.