After a forest fire in Yellowstone
National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the
fire's damage.
One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched like a statue on the ground at the base of a tree. He was somewhat sickened by the
eerie sight as he knocked over the bird with a stick. When he struck it, three
tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother's wings. The loving
mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the
base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively
knowing that the smoke would rise. She could have flown to safety but
had refused to abandon her babies. When the blaze had arrived and the heat
had singed her small body, the mother had remained steadfast. Because she
had been willing to die, those
under the cover of her wings would live.