We've been talking about lessons learned from the life of Christ in the four gospels. And in Matthew 23, Jesus is speaking to his disciples, and the entire chapter in your New Testament may be in red, because the entire chapter is Jesus speaking. And he's using some very strong language denouncing the Pharisees and the religious leaders of the day that are deceiving people with the wrong gospel and the wrong religion. And he comes down and says, I picture him looking out over the city of Jerusalem as he says this to his disciples. He says it with great emotion. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee. How often would I have gathered thy children together? Even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings. But you would not. Can you just feel the sadness that he has there? The entire Old Testament, it seems that God had sent one prophet after the next trying to get Israel to come back to him. And he he did so many things to try to get his children to follow him and to believe the truth. But they just did were determined that they were not going to listen. And Jesus there with his disciples shows a great amount of emotion. He has all the range of human emotions. If you read carefully through the four gospels, every single thing that we would feel, he felt. And because he is love, imagine how much more he could feel emotions than even we can feel them. And not just Israel, but all of us. We are engrafted into the seed of Abraham, anyone that trusts Christ as their savior, as an adopted child of God. And I love the picture that he says about a hen gathering her chicks. I we have chickens. So I go out and gather the eggs from the chickens in our barn. And we have um a setup where the laying boxes, there's a door latch behind them, and I can open the door and gather the eggs out of the ten laying boxes where the hens go to lay their eggs. Well, sometimes, as in the last few days, this has happened, one of the hens will stay in the box and sit on all the eggs that the other hens have laid and that she has laid. So it's a little bit of a task to get that hen to give up those eggs when the hen is sitting on those eggs. And the other day, I kind of pushed the hen over and I'm trying to pull out the eggs underneath her. And every time I would roll an egg toward me, she'd take her beak and she'd tuck the egg back under her wing, and I'd try for another egg and she'd push the egg back under her wing. Very possessive of those eggs, and it was really funny, but it reminded me of this verse. And I think to myself, so many thoughts about this. First of all, Jesus, as a very manly, masculine man and a leader, was not afraid to show his emotion to those that he followed. He was transparent. And ladies, if you are to really be helpful to others, to your own children, to maybe a Sunday school class, or just talking to ladies at church, or your neighbors, or your family, be real, be transparent about how you feel. Don't try to put on that face like everything is always fine all the time. That's not helpful to you, and it's not helpful to anyone. It might be scary to show your real emotion. But look how influential Christ was with his disciples. And part of that, I believe, was because he was so honest with them. They saw his frustration, they saw his happiness, they saw his love. He was willing to speak about his emotions and communicate that to others. And that is very life-changing. When I go to a ladies' meeting or hear women speak, I am always so thankful. If even if I listen to a podcast or something like that, I'm so thankful when women are courageous enough to be vulnerable and transparent because that is how you can help other women. The other thing is just how possessive Jesus is of his children, take that in. You are loved by God. Just like that hen just keeps tucking the eggs back under her nest, she's not gonna give up any of her eggs, those are important to her. And Jesus said, I would have gathered you like a hen gathers her chicks, you just would not. And if we can get that mental picture of how protective Jesus is of us, of how he covers us, Psalm 91 said, He covers us with his wings. We are safe with God, we are safe with our Heavenly Father, we can rest and relax. I love this phrase. I heard this phrase used before of a woman was talking about how her home should be a safe place to land for her family, and that is what Jesus is. He's a safe place to land. In your devotions in the morning, when you spend time walking with the Lord, or even as you literally are walking, maybe in nature and talking to him, driving and talking to him, doing the dishes and talking to him, sitting at work and talking to him. Remember the picture of a hen with her chicks. She's going to protect them, she's going to keep them safe. And that is how Jesus feels about you. You are very, very, very loved. You are protected under the shadow of the Almighty. And that's worth that's worth just bringing a smile to your face on this Monday morning. That's worth shouting about. That's worth tearing up and crying about. Just know and feel the love's protection. So don't do what he said the children of Israel were doing. Don't decide. I'm not going to let Jesus protect me. I'm not going to be under the shadow of the Almighty. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to have my own way. That isn't the life that we want. Friends, go out this week and love God and love others and treat others with that sweet, kind protectiveness that Jesus has toward us. I love you. Have a great week.