God is Hatching Something

One morning before starting my devotions, I got a clear image of a nest, tucked away with several eggs in it. As I reached for my journal to jot down impressions, I wrote “hidden, safe, nest with eggs”, “potential over time”, “sit on it and wait”. While the words “sit on it and wait” are hardly a motivational speech, I was overcome with feelings of encouragement and hope. I felt the Lord whisper “Don’t judge this season because of what I am hatching”.

I thought about animals that incubate their eggs. Just sitting on those eggs looks- at first glance- uneventful, like wasted time, and like nothing is happening. Until the moment of “hatch”. As I looked up the definition of “hatch”, I realized that God’s work of “hatching” things in our lives this season can look many different ways.

First, a hatch is an opening in a roof. It brings to mind a famous Biblical opening in a roof, in which one man who could do nothing (because he was paralyzed) reached such a point of boldness (or at the very least said yes to his friends’ boldness) and was healed through an unconventional and unexpected “hatch” made in the roof. Sometimes the hatching that the Lord is doing in our life is taking our yes or our bold hope and creating an unexpected way where there was no way in order to bring about the miraculous for His glory.

Second, a hatch can be a small covered opening in the floor that leads to an underground space. Immediately I got the image of a wine cellar. Like the chicken on its eggs, the wine often does a lot of “sitting” that looks uneventful. In the sitting, however, is an internal process that is literally changing its composition and destining it for a different use. At times, God is “hatching” a renewed mind for us or a softened heart. It doesn’t look like much in terms of change on the outside, but on the inside, critical preparation is happening for a future new use or application.

A hatch can also be the opening on the side of a plane. As in skydiving, using this hatch requires one step (or leap) of faith to set it in motion. That one step, however, can be the hardest because it requires total trust in the Lord and a complete departure from our own understanding. The leap from the hatch may be momentary, but the preparation for the leap is the real work. For some, the hatching the Lord is doing in your life is a breakthrough in the form of preparation for one critical step of obedience that looks scary, but through trust and obedience will prove both fruitful and trust-building.

A hatch is also the name for the opening between the lower portion of a ship and the deck of the ship. An emergence onto the deck would provide visibility, and, for some ships, steering. While you are technically “in the same boat” (literally and figuratively) regardless of what deck you’re on, having greater visibility and sense of heading is a game-changer. Maybe what God is hatching in your life isn’t so much a change in direction as much as greater insight, revelation, and visibility into what He is doing and where you are headed with Him.

The final definition for "hatch" that caught my attention was “covering for an opening”. Our sweet God doesn’t provide an opening or calling without also inviting us into His covering. Where He calls us to and what He calls us to do, He gives us grace for. Thank you, Lord!

Hatching- regardless of what it looks like in your life, involves three things: a transition, a period of time, and an element of the unexpected. Hatching from an egg or a chrysalis both are huge transitions- one being the birthing of a brand new thing, and the other being an old thing that is entering a new season with all new ways to move and operate. Incubation-often involved in hatching eggs- is that time of waiting that feels like nothing. I imagine it’s what the first few laps around Jericho felt like also. But our experience in the waiting can still be victorious if we remember the breakthrough that it’s building to. To “hatch” (as a verb) can be “to make a plan, especially a secret plan”. God’s plans that He hatches on us are the best possible surprises. We often fear the unexpected, but with the Lord, He does more than we ask, expect, or imagine in only the best ways.

As I reviewed my original journal notes to write this, I had jotted in messy cursive “potential over time”, the words “over” and “time” running together. I laughed at the idea of “potential overtime” which often does happen when we’re willing to let the Lord complete His processes in us. Rarely does sitting on something or “hanging in there” through transition feel exhilarating, but the irony is that the word “hatch” also listed “floodgate” as a definition. All the build-up, preparation, and growth that happens are you “sit on” this season and soak up all the Lord has will result in a floodgate of His presence and His movement in our lives.

Wherever you are today, may you be encouraged to ask the Lord what He may be hatching in your life. May you see this time today of in-between or waiting or stepping into the unknown as the incubation period for the Lord’s promises for tomorrow.