Hard to see but bear with me
 I know this is hard to see but bear with me. A few years ago a group of wild turkeys moved into the area outside of the Developmental Center at Grafton.  I have watched over the years as each Spring at least one hen will return with anywhere from 6 to 12 babies and wander around the grounds and the industrial area to the west.  Some days they walk by the office window, sometimes they get stuck behind a fence by the clients garden.  This is funny because all they have to do is walk around it.  It runs North and South.  They stand behind the fence piteously crying to the rest and if you try and herd them around the fence they suddenly realize they can fly and hop over.  I guess they probably are not the smartest animals in the world but they are fun to watch.  Hence the picture.If you look carefully at the center of the picture to the left of the big brown tanks you will see a white dot.  One of the hens has an albino chick.  Now I don’t remember a lot about biology but I am assuming that this is pretty rare.  Unless the hen was hanging around a Butterball farm I can’t imagine why she should hatch one white turkey out of 8. There are two separate groups.  One hen with about five babies that I would guess are about a month old and another with a group probably six weeks old.  They are wandering around out there together, the hens watching over the chicks and the chicks watching over grasshoppers.  When I try get close and get a picture they simply walk away and disappear into the shelter belt and I mean they disappear.  Hence the picture.  I know enough about wildlife to know that in the wild a white wild turkey is at a definite disadvantage.  You can see in the picture that as a white dot he stands out pretty good. So here is the point – every time I would try and get a picture, one of the hens, either the mother or the aunt I guess, would get between me and the white chick.  It was as if they realized that they are fairly well camoflaged  and he/she is not.  They didn’t do it to the “regular” chicks.  It was an interesting thing to see.  It was as if they were thinking – “we need to run interference for him and cover up his whiteness and protect him”.

So by now you may be wondering what this is all about.  As I watched this I kept thinking about the 8th commandment and the old explanation. 

We should fear and love God that we do not belie, betray, slander or defame or neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything”.

 Put the best construction on everything to me is to run interference for someone else.  Like that hen getting between me and the chick to “cover” him that is what we are to do for one another in our life together.  It doesn’t mean that we “cover” for sin but we cover the weak brother and run interference.  Because Christ covers our sin with his righteousness we are free to do the same for one another.  In partnerships there is always going to be a “weak” link – and our job in Christ is to “cover” one another.  Sadly in the church we sometimes turn on each other and point out the faults and the defects rather than defending, speaking well and putting the best construction on everything.