Shelter

Shelter is considered one of the basic living requirements along with clean water and food. Shelter can also be used as a verb as in “to provide protection” from the weather, from danger, or from some other form of threat.

Shelter has many different forms from a palace to a cardboard box.  Those different forms also provide varying degrees of sheltering. A cave provides protection from wind and rain and other weather elements. A mother hen provides protection for her chicks under her wings.

There is a difference here in the shelter provided.  While a cave may provide shelter from the elements, it is in no way nurturing.  The shelter provided by a mother hen is not only nurturing but protective in an active way.  Just try to mess with those babies!

Perhaps that is why Jesus uses the mother hen example of sheltering rather than a cave example. He not only shelters but in that sheltering also protects! He is a refuge that is active in loving us.