No fanfare. No rehearsal. Just… go.

That’s the chick’s first experience of life outside the egg. One minute it’s tucked in a fluid-filled shell, surrounded by quiet and warmth. The next, it’s up on its feet — blinking, peeping, and pecking at the ground as if it’s been practicing for weeks.

There’s no training class.

No feeding tutorial.

No “how to breathe air” orientation.

And yet, within hours, this little creature knows how to do everything it needs. Its eyes are open. Its legs are strong. Its beak works. Its instincts fire like preset code. It can walk, eat, drink, and even recognize warmth and danger. And it does all of this with no help from its parents — just whatever was already in it when it hatched.

It’s as if Jehovah wrote the manual into the muscles.

According to poultry scientists at Texas A&M University, the pecking reflex begins developing inside the shell well before hatching. What seems like random movement is actually purposeful — a quiet rehearsal for life after hatching. The chick is preparing before it even knows it will need to.

And we… aren’t so different.

We don’t always feel ready. Life cracks open, and suddenly we’re thrust into something new — a responsibility, a test, a challenge. We assume we’re underprepared. But what if we’re wrong?

What if Jehovah has already equipped us with the instincts, memories, scriptures, or skills we’ll need — even if we haven’t used them yet?

What if you were more ready than you think?

Sometimes, the preparation happens quietly — in small, faithful choices that seem ordinary at the time. A conversation we didn’t know was training. A scripture that stayed with us. A habit of prayer that took root before it was ever tested.

Then something big happens. And we’re startled to find ourselves… steady. It’s not pride. It’s surprise. “I didn’t know I could handle that.”

But Jehovah knew.

Jesus once said, “The person faithful in what is least is faithful also in much” (Luke 16:10, NWT). Maybe the chick walking on wobbling legs is a whisper of that truth — a reminder that quiet readiness often begins before the trial ever comes.

Scripture also assures us that Jehovah can “equip you with every good thing to do his will” (Hebrews 13:21, NWT).

If that’s true, maybe being ready isn’t about feeling ready.

Maybe it’s about being made ready — in advance.

References:

• Luke 16:10, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT)

• Hebrews 13:21, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT)

• Research on pecking reflex and early post-hatch behavior from Texas A&M University Department of Poultry Science (summarized)