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I heard a story about a woman who had stopped her car at a red light when a man with a gun suddenly opened the passenger side door and jumped into the seat next to her. As the story goes, this woman had recently been meditating on Psalm 91:4, “He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings you will find refuge.”
In that terrifying moment, only one word came out of the shocked woman’s mouth, on repeat. Gripping her steering wheel and bellowing at the top of her lungs, she turned and wildly hollered into his face, “Feathers!! Feathers, feathers, FEATHERS!!!”
The stunned bad guy hopped back out of the car, probably thinking she was crazy!

I love my chickens. Our current beak count is fourteen! Earlier this summer, our discontented fenced-in birds were restless, eager to get to greener grass on the other side of their barrier. One day, flapping with gusto, several chickens made it over the fence. That was the day I grabbed my kitchen scissors and a second set of hands to trim the flying feathers of my birds to keep them safely inside their fenced boundary.

I learned that the feathers I clipped, my chicken’s flight feathers, are also called their pinion feathers. Pinions are the outermost, farthest-reaching feathers on a bird’s wing, the feathers that cover best and furthest.

In God’s sweet providence, the morning after I clipped my chicken’s wings, I read Psalm 91. Because feathers and wings were very much on my mind, I leaned into this picture of God covering me, covering us with his pinions.
We are covered, hemmed in, by God’s farthest-reaching feathers. This truth leads me to ask the question, along with the Psalmist: “Where can we go from His Spirit? Where can we flee from His presence?”

Psalm 139 tells us:
“If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
EVEN THERE, your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”

Even if we “fly” to the most remote parts of the sea, His hand leads and holds us. His outstretched, ever-reaching pinion feathers always and entirely cover us in His protective care.

In light of the story of the lady at the stop-light, it was profound to read on in Psalm 91 to see clearly from the above story and the scriptures: when we dwell in the shelter of the Most High, when we abide in the shadow of the Almighty, certainly for all of eternity and often in the day to day events:

We are delivered from the snare of the fowler.
Destruction will not come near you.
No evil shall be allowed to befall you.
No plague will come near your tent (or car!).
His angels will guard you in all your ways.
You will be delivered and protected.
You will be rescued and honored.

I pause and think about God’s covering over me and you, Gentle Reader. And I consider His covering over my adult children, children that I don’t see daily: beloved adults that I no longer feed, clothe, or put to bed on time. His pinions, His most tender care covers each of them, wherever they are, whatever they are doing. If they are walking, standing, or sitting (Psalm 1), He sees, He knows, He covers them best. Nestled under and covered by His pinions: this, this is our best and lasting place of refuge.

Photo Credit: Andy Willis, Unsplash