Mission Moment

Dear Covenant Families,

As believers, we endeavor to abide in a spirit of thankfulness for all that God has blessed us with in this life and in the life to come. We never want to lose sight of the gifts or of the Giver, but often we do just that very thing.

I truly love Thanksgiving! The excellent food, the time with loved ones, and the lack of complete commercialism is probably what gives it its edge over the other holidays. But to be sure, the collective pause to acknowledge God’s abundance and provision is good for our hearts and our souls.

One way that we are experiencing abundance this month is through the hatching and brooding of the newest members of the C. Mason Chicken Coop. You may or may not know about the mission taking place over on Grammar Deck West, but likely you have heard. Our flock of chickens has dwindled down to only 2 hens. Blame it on the intense summer heat and/or the circle of life, but the time had come for us to grow our flock. Maintaining a closed flock*, as well as ensuring cleanliness are paramount for chickens in a school setting. Our beloved facilities assistant, Mr. Raz, provided us with 36 fertilized eggs, all from his family farm and in 2 separate waves. It is typical to start large as some eggs will not be viable and others will be roosters, which Dallas city ordinance forbids in backyard flocks.

Midway through the incubation period, we “candled” the eggs and saw the chicken embryos wiggling around in their shells. As they approached their due date, we noticed that the shells were becoming cramped with less room for wiggling and moving around. Hatching was imminent.

Observing the hatching process truly felt like watching a miracle take place in real-time. We learned that God provides baby chickens with a special “tooth” that helps them get out of the shell. They begin with a small hole, or a “pip”, and then make a “zipper” around the shell that is ultimately pushed apart and the chick is free. Once the chick is out of the egg, the special tooth drops off. The pip and the zip take hours; and while watching them, you yearn to open the incubator and give them assistance. But no, this struggle is part of them becoming strong for life outside of the egg. The bird does not leave the shell fluffy and cute, but wet, pitiful, and exhausted. We watched them warm up and strengthen in only a few hours.

The next stage is “brooding” – that is where the chicks live together and grow with heat, food, and water. We are waiting for them to get more feathers before they go into our new baby coop (you might have seen it by the flagpoles). While there, they will work on getting bigger, stronger, and a dose of gumption before joining the girls in the C. Mason Coop. The second wave of hatching will happen over Thanksgiving. I am ashamed to admit that I must not be very good at counting to 21. Despite that, we can expect to meet more brooding chicks after the Thanksgiving Break.

So why do we do this at Covenant? Why go to the trouble and mess of a project like this, and did I mention the mess? Is something like hatching chicks with various groups of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric students watching in awe part of our curricular objectives? Well, I would have to answer yes and no. Yes, we want our students to be participants in God’s creation through time spent outdoors observing and exploring. No, in that it is just another lesson or learning experience to be checked off of a list.

"Charlotte Mason believed that when our children see, engage with, and take care of nature, it is a holistic experience; their minds, bodies, and souls entwine with the beauty around them, and that beauty begins to take up space in their hearts alongside the other memories and experiences they have gathered. Studying nature is an entry point into the practice of paying attention with our senses, a foundation for other subjects, and a wonderful way to experience the world."  Quote from Modern Miss Mason, by Leah Boden.

We want our children to love the natural world, but more importantly, we want them to love the Creator. We want them to marvel at the beauty and the miracle that is the hatching of a chicken egg. God abundantly provides for the needs of a helpless little bird. How much more does He love and care for us? Infinitely more. Hopefully, in experiencing this together we are learning how good our God truly is.

He is the giver of all things. He deserves our gratitude, adoration, and worship.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Non Nobis,

Laura Mountjoy
Grammar School Head

* A closed flock simply means the chickens were all added at the same time and from the same source which keeps illness at bay.