A Time to Lose

There is a dark side to being surrounded by Life in this fallen world: it means we must also regularly face Loss.

And nothing about Loss is fun or pretty.

Since we’ve moved to our little acreage and started amassing an army of animals, we’ve lost a cat, some chickens, and a few ducks.

I was anxious about leaving our flocks, wondering how they would fare with the change in routines, worried that the birds would mutiny and begin attacking each other.

Paradoxically, we lost no animals while we were off visiting family in Iowa…yet, we lost many in the weeks that followed—about 5 young chickens, 1 duckling, and 2 laying hens.

We expected we might lose up to 40% of the young chickens. To be honest, though, we were completely caught off guard to lose 2 full-grown laying hens—Brownie & Isa—who simply never returned to the coop one evening.

We also lost a little duckling who had been securely tucked inside a shed alongside Spot the goose and eleven other ducklings. Somehow, a predator still managed to get in. (The shed has since received some extra fortification.)

Upon returning from our second trip this spring (more on that soon), in which we again lost zero animals during our absence, we’ve already lost three more ducklings, a young hen, and most recently, a young rooster, too (our last one, it seems).

It’s discouraging and sad and downright unpleasant.

Sometimes they simply don’t come back or they’re suddenly missing from the flock.

Sometimes a predator attacks, we discover a body, and must then bury them.

The grief weighs on your heart while the anxiety tugs at your mind.

When one goes missing, we’re suddenly on high alert, searching for them. Making extra trips to the coop in the evening, just in case they return.

But this is just part of farm life. You can’t have Life without Loss. Not this side of heaven.

So you pray and you check and you fortify. You pray again and hold it all with an open hand.

You take the good with the bad and you keep moving forward.

Because this has always been about so much more than birds. These are opportunities that God is using to teach us about hard work, death, resilience, the natural world, His goodness and where our hope is found.

In Christ alone.

“To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven…”

Next up: A Time to Plant—because even in the wake of loss, new growth emerges. Coming June 6.