Hey family, beloved in Bakersfield calling in April 10th to pray over our children.

Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers.

How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me.

Luke 1334.

Oh, how deep is our instinct to draw our children to ourselves

to try and protect them from every threat. And oh, how typical the tendency is for our children

to assume they will need no protection. They want to take their chances out in the world on their

own, apart from our careful watch and covering.

We should probably take away two things from this picture.

We long for our children to come in close

so that we can protect them.

We're parenting them the way God parents us.

This impulse is God-given and Godlike.

Chicks are meant to look to their parents for protection,

but we also recognize there is a far greater security

that can only be provided to our children by God himself.

Christ is like the hen we see gathering her chicks under her wings.

Only he can shield us from the wrath of God.

Christ has provided the protection needed for all who will come under the shelter of his wings. He absorbed the wrath of God so that we

and our children might be protected. Lord, as our children hear you calling out to come to you, won't you

break through every strain of resistance and independence? Give our children hear you calling out to come to you, won't you break through every strain of resistance and independence?

Give our children a healthy and right fear of you so that they will see their need for protection.

...