Heywood you mind?: How oft would I have gathered you...

"Not long ago I came across a passage in the Book of Mormon that added to my understanding of this concept of the divine within us. I love the Book of Mormon. It is comforting to me to know that the Lord has had direct care over this work and that the words contained within it are exactly what the Lord wants said exactly the way He wants it said.

"Because I believe that, I have often pondered the significance of certain verses. The passage which caught my attention was 3 Nephi 10, in which the Lord uses an image of a hen gathering her chicks. For a long time this just seemed like very odd scripture. I didn't understand its power or its relevance to me. I assumed it was important because of the repetition of the image, but it didn't touch me in a way I could fully understand. Beginning in verse 4 He says, 'How oft have I gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings.' In verse 5 He repeats again, 'And again, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings.' At the end of the same verse He says, 'How oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens.' In verse 6 He says it yet another time: 'How oft will I gather you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings.'

"Not being a farm girl, I could only imagine the scene of a hen gathering her chickens under her wings. I wondered what circumstances would cause a mother hen to gather her chicks and what would encourage lively chicks to be gathered. I wondered why the Lord would think it important enough to repeat this image four times in three verses.

"Then a friend shared with me this story told by Phillip Allred in Meridian Magazine. A group of young college students were helping measure range damage after a wildfire raged across the prairie outside their university town. As they walked over the expanse of blackened earth, they noticed a cluster of small smoldering mounds. One of the volunteers was particularly interested in the unidentifiable heaps and asked one of the more experienced range managers what they were.

"This veteran of many range fires replied that he had seen this phenomenon on a few occasions and suggested that the young man turn over one of the piles. He did. To his great surprise several sage grouse chicks ran out from under the upturned mound. He was fascinated. How incredible, he thought, that these little chicks had known to find and run underneath this mysterious shelter.

"The young man asked what the mound was and how the chicks knew to take refuge there. To his amazement, he was told that the smoldering heap was the remains of their mother. When there is danger the mother hen instinctively calls out to her young ones and stretches out her wings for them to run under and find protection in her embrace. The young man was profoundly moved by this symbol of a mother's innate love and protection."