by Liz Lemon Swindle

August 5, 2009

There is a time early in the morning, before I wake, when I will see my unpainted paintings. Some are rough ideas and others complete beautiful paintings. This painting, along with others, wil be a series of paintings depicting Jesus’ parables and teachings.

To prepare for this painting, I called several chicken farms in the area and found one that was willing to work with me; it was the Shepherd chicken farm in Spanish Fork. We shot images on the 14th of March. Something very profound and enlightening happened at the shoot that is important to mention. I prepared for what I thought would play out that day.

As a child growing up on a farm, I used to gather eggs in the chicken coup. I wasn’t particularly fond of this chore because of the roosters – a bit aggressive – no, very aggressive! The point is, I didn’t pay too much attention to the goings on in a farm yard in ‘chicken behavior.’ I assumed that it would be difficult to get the chicks to go for cover, mostly because of how I understood the scripture:

“. . . how often would I have gathered thy (my) children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”

For some reason, I always pictured the ‘chicks’ running in all directions, unable to herd – probably my days at the chicken coup.

The most amazing thing happened when we shot the scene. We set up the scene with some cardboard and sprinkled some saw dust to give more texture like dirt and had Phillip (Jesus) sit in the middle on the floor. We put the baby chicks in the enclosure fully expecting them to scatter, frightened of Phillip, and then we were going to put the mother hen in with them. To my surprise, the chicks went straight to Philip and sought cover in his lap and robes and sleeves .

It was wonderful! I saw this in such a wonderful light and I understood the imagery the Savior chose to use more clearly.

Baby chicks instinctively seek cover and protection without forethought; I’m not sure we do. We sometimes think mistakenly that we can ‘handle’ things on our own without our Savior’s arms, but sadly we learn this never works.

He has ‘our back.’ He can see down the road the things we cannot and through our submission to His will and our obedience to His laws, we gain the protection His ‘wings’ will give us, safe from the world and all the harm it can inflict.



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