If you’ve followed our moving-to-the-country journey, you know that getting animals has been one of the most exciting parts for all of us. We now have 2 dogs, 2 cats, 4 goats, 16 chickens, and a duck named Clarence.
Clarence was a rescue duckling. Someone had saved him from a cat attack and dropped him off at Tractor Supply, hoping he’d find a home.
There’s a sucker born every minute.
How could I resist a lone orphan duckling that arrived AT THE EXACT MOMENT I was at Tractor Supply with my kids letting them pick out their baby chicks?
The sales associate assured me: the duckling could eat the same food as our chicks; he could live in the same coop as our chicks; and he’d be fine without a pond. “He’ll think he’s a chicken!” she said.
Clarence thinks he’s a chicken.
We’ve tried numerous times to put him in a dish of water. He hates the water. Chickens don’t like to get wet.
We are considering getting a couple more ducks, so Clarence can have friends who look like him, and help him to build meaningful relationships within his species. I’m also quite taken with the idea of getting some geese. Babies of course. All these waterfowl could help teach Clarence that HE IS NOT IN FACT A CHICKEN.
My amazing husband surprised me one day this week with a giant hole in the chicken yard. A POND FOR CLARENCE!
Among the countless trash and treasure items left on the property by the previous owners was a large stock tank. Josh spent over an hour digging down roughly 4 feet through about a bazillion layers of rock solid Texas clay. In the 102° blazing heat. For a single duck who hates the water. Because he thinks he’s a chicken.
I love that man.
It took several tries to get it the right depth. Finally we filled it to the top with water. And put Clarence in it.
It went EXACTLY as expected.
The next morning, we went out to the chicken yard to find the pond completely empty and bone dry.
It had cracked.
Several layers of silicone, and it was patched up. Time to try again. I thought I’d give Clarence another little water-aversion-therapy as we refilled the tank. He actually did ok!
A few more tries, some good, some not so good. The pond is holding water well, and all the chickens enjoy drinking out of their new, large, deep water dish.
And today, my heart exploded. I watched Clarence waddle up to his pond. He literally acted nonchalant…
walking away, then back, looking to see if anyone was watching. First a little sip of water,
then a little hop! Right into the water, swimming in circles, swishing his little webbed feet.
Then he ducked his head down, and with a splash, DISAPPEARED to the bottom!
After several second, he SHOT out of the pond straight up in the air, flapping his wings, and hit the ground running franticly.
He did what he was meant to do for the very first time, and it scared him to death.
I think we are like that sometimes. We see what others are doing, and we want to be like them. We measure ourselves against others, and we wonder why OUR EFFORTS don’t match THEIR RESULTS.
BUT GOD.
God made each one of us uniquely gifted to fill the role He created us for. And sometimes, no matter how badly we want to act like a chicken and look like a chicken and surround ourselves with chickens, WE WERE MADE TO BE A DUCK and do duck things instead of chicken things.
May we find joy and purpose in what God has for us.
Thanks for giving thanks with me.
Oh, and we also are pretty sure that Clarence is a girl.
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”(1 Corinthians 12:4-6)
“Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:15-18, 27)
Sundaygratitude 