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I wrote this story many years ago, and it still touches my heart. I believe the innocent prayers of children are as important to God as the weighty matters that we adults bring to his attention. I hope you will be blessed by this sweet, true story.
Ivan’s Prayer
A True Story
Copyright 2021 by Holli Fry
Photography by Katy Thigpen and Holli Fry
Special thanks to Greyson Thigpen
Ivan loved animals—animals of every size, shape and color. His family had cats, goats, pigs, a goldfish, and a hamster. Ivan had a very special place in his heart for each one and spent time playing with them every day. He also helped feed and care of all of them. He even helped big brother Nils clean up after his 4-H pigs. Ivan was too young to be in 4-H, but he assisted so well with this project that when Nils got his money from the sale, he shared some of it with his younger brother.
But there was one animal Ivan didn’t have, and in spite of all the other wonderful pets, he couldn’t get this one out of his mind. One day, in the fall, Ivan climbed up on the kitchen counter to talk to Mom as she cooked supper.
“Mom, you know what I would really, really like?”
“What’s that, Ivan?”
“A chicken.”
“A chicken! What do you want a chicken for?”
“For a pet!”
“Ivan, don’t you think we have enough pets?”
“But we don’t have a chicken!”
“Where do you think we would keep a chicken?”
“In the goat pen.”
“Don’t you think the goats might hurt the chicken?”
“No, they would be its friends. And just think, Mom, if the chicken laid eggs, we could eat the eggs!”
Mom thought about having fresh eggs to eat and said she would talk to Dad about it but only on one condition: “Now, Ivan, if we decide our family can handle one more pet, are you willing to pay for it out of the Christmas and birthday money you’ve been saving?”
“Oh, yes, yes, yes! Thank you! Thank you!” and before Mom could say anything else, Ivan ran outside to tell his big brother Nils he was going to get a chicken.
Dad talked to all his friends at the hardware store where he worked, and within a few days, he found out about someone who had a game hen for sale for only two dollars! Ivan gladly gave Dad two dollars from his wallet, and the next day Dad brought the hen home after work.
She was beautiful! Her feathers were brown, black, gray, and red, all mixed together. She made wonderful clucking sounds and immediately set about exploring her new home—the yard, the goat pen, the garage, and the vacant pig pen.
Unlike the chicken Mom and Ivan had envisioned, this bird would not stay in the goat pen because she could fly! In fact, she went wherever she chose to go, so the first night, she roosted in the tree beside the pen. Looking down over the goats, she clucked something that sounded like, “Nope! Nope! Not sleepin’ with goats. Nope! Not sleepin’ with goats.”
Ivan named his new pet “Henny” and was very proud of her. Every day before and after school, he went out to feed her and listen to her soft, rhythmic clucking sounds, happy just to know she was his.
Mom, however, grumbled about Dad’s choice in chickens. “Why isn’t she all white or all red like the story-book chickens?” Or, “Why doesn’t she stay in the goat pen?” And most of all, “Why doesn’t she lay eggs?”
Within a few weeks, Dad came home with four hens—two white and two brown—and a magnificent red rooster! All the new chickens stayed in the goat pen like they were supposed to. The brown hens laid large brown eggs, the white hens laid jumbo white eggs, and the rooster woke everyone up in the morning! All of a sudden, Ivan’s world danced to beautiful chicken music—hens clucking, feathers rustling, and the rooster crowing.
Ivan knew Dad had gotten the new chickens because Mom wanted fresh eggs, but still, he thought of them as his very own because he knew his family would never have gotten any chickens at all if he hadn’t bought Henny. He proudly collected the eggs his chickens laid every day and enjoyed eating the delicious meals Mom made with them. Most of all, he delighted in watching his chickens as they busily pecked at the corn he gave them and listening to their continuous concert of sweet music.
After several weeks, Ivan began to think about all those eggs. If his family would stop eating the eggs, they could hatch and become little baby chicks, and wouldn’t that be wonderful! He asked Mom if he could stop gathering the eggs and let the chickens raise some chicks. She didn’t think it would work because she and Dad had no experience with chickens and knew nothing about the special care a nesting hen and her eggs might need.
At Christmas time, when Nanny and Pawpaw came to visit, Ivan asked Pawpaw if he knew how to raise chicks. (Pawpaw would know because he knew everything.) He said the hen that was going to raise its chicks would need a separate pen so the other chickens wouldn’t bother the eggs and the newly-hatched chicks. He said something about what kind of pen it had to be and the nesting material they would have to provide and several other complicated things. Ivan glanced over at Mom and Dad to see if they heard what Pawpaw had said, but they were talking to Nanny and didn’t seem the least bit interested in raising chicks.
Months passed, and Ivan continued to long for baby chicks. As Easter approached and store windows blossomed colorful pictures of baby bunny rabbits and little chicks, Ivan’s longing became even stronger. He stopped gathering the eggs, but Dad went out and got them anyway. He asked Dad to stop collecting them, but he said it wouldn’t do any good because the hens couldn’t raise their chicks without all the special provisions Pawpaw had talked about.
One day, Mom took Nils and Ivan to the farm store to look at the little Easter chicks that were for sale as pets. Ivan knew exactly what Mom was doing. These chicks would be already hatched and able to get by on their own, and she hoped this would distract him from wanting his own chickens to raise chicks.
When he first saw them, he thought perhaps this would, in fact, be good enough. The adorable chicks nearly won him over. “We’re taking a trip to see my mother on Easter weekend,” Mom told the clerk. “So I don’t want to buy any chicks now because we won’t be at home to take care of them. But I’d like to get two—one for Nils and one for Ivan—some time after we get back. Will you still have them after Easter?”
“Yes, we always have chicks until about a month after Easter. We get them every Tuesday.”
“Good,” said Mom. “The first Tuesday after our trip, I’ll have to get caught up on my laundry and cleaning, but the second Tuesday, we’ll come and get two chicks.”
The boys were excited about getting the chicks and told Granny all about it when they went to see her. As soon as they got home from Granny’s house, Ivan went straight out to see his chickens. Each one had a special place in his heart—the five fine chickens in the goat pen and also Henny who was perhaps not so fine a chicken as the others but who had a special kind of beauty because she was free to go wherever she wanted to, and you never knew just where you might find her.
Ivan looked forward to getting a chick at the farm store, but somehow, that wasn’t really what he wanted. He longed for one of his own chickens to have chicks. There by the goat pen, while the rest of the family bustled about trying to get everything put away after their long trip, Ivan closed his eyes and prayed, “Dear God, please let one of my chickens have chicks. Please, please, God.”
For the rest of the week, when Ivan visited his chickens each day after school, he found himself silently praying for something he knew could never happen.
That Friday afternoon, as Ivan stood by the goat pen watching his chickens, Dad came out to take the trash to the burn barrel behind the pig pen, which had been empty since the 4-H auction last winter. As Dad turned toward the pen, he suddenly had such a look of surprise on his face that Ivan feared he had seen a snake!
Dad whispered urgently, “Ivan, come here. You’ve got to see this!” Ivan started slowly, cautiously, toward Dad. “Come here, Ivan. Come here!” Perhaps it was excitement rather than fear that he heard in Dad’s voice. He took a deep breath, mustered up his courage, and walked a little faster, still very cautious and a little afraid. Not wanting to anger whatever his father had found in the pig pen, he tip-toed past the garage, past the high side fence of the enclosure, and around to the low back fence where he could see into the pen.
There stood none other than Henny, surrounded by seven tiny chicks—not more than a few hours old—peeping excitedly and running in circles all around their mother!
Ivan could hardly believe his eyes. Too happy for words, he covered his face with both hands and cried out for joy, “Ooooh! Ooooh!” Ivan’s shout frightened Henny and the chicks, and they all retreated behind the pig feeder.
“Look, Ivan! That must be where she hid her eggs—behind the pig feeder,” Dad exclaimed. “And we thought she wasn’t laying eggs!”
“Oh, this is the happiest day of my whole life!” shouted Ivan as he danced for joy. “I’m so happy, I could jump to heaven!” Then he ran around the yard in circles with his arms outstretched, shouting, “What a wonderful day! What a wonderful day! What a wonderful day!”
God had answered Ivan’s prayer.
A Note to Parents
Teaching our children about God is a lifelong task for Christian parents. Beginning with a simple understanding that God made everything, we move on to recognizing that the Bible is God’s Word and we are sinners in need of a Savior. Our ultimate goal is to raise children who have a personal relationship with God.
"Ivan’s Prayer" is the story of a young child who does have such a relationship. Thus, when his heart cries out for something that’s truly important to him, he turns to God. The things children pray for are not necessarily of great importance in the grand scheme of things, but if something is important to a child, it’s important to God as well.
Just think what this means to the child: “God loves you, little one. You’re important to him. He hears your prayers.” Every child could benefit from this simple truth while navigating the labyrinth of growing up. If God loves me, if I am important to him, if he hears my prayers, then I can make it! Everything is going to be alright. I pray that as parents read this true story to their children, it will be an encouragement to parents and children alike to seek God with all their hearts and go to him in prayer.
Dedication
Dedicated to the memory of my sweet friend Pat Dorflinger,
A woman of faith,
Ivan’s mom.
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