As We Are

Sometimes I cannot help but wonder what the cows who roam the pasture are wondering.  In this in between season of the hay bales running low and the green grass not in yet, I have been supplementing their diet with an occasional sack of sweet feed.  They are drooling at the mouth when they see me tearing open the sack and pouring the feed in the bucket.  And, when it is all gone, they go to the gate and start hollering for more.  So, imagine what thoughts they might have had yesterday as they saw 40 sacks of fertilizer in the back of the truck and me out there pouring one sack after another in a bucket before throwing it under the pecan trees.

 

Things are not always what they appear.  It was a lesson those cows could not quite figure out, but then, many of us are prone to make the same mistake.  Sometimes the things we see do not reflect reality.  Accumulation and productivity do not necessarily make for happy people even if they do seem to be smiling all the time. When King Saul looked at David, his would be giant killer, the boy did not seem to be prepared for battle with just a shepherd's staff and a bag of rocks.  When God looks at us, He is not interested in outward appearance.  He only has eyes for our hearts.

 

The most important work we do is heart work.  No one sees it.  No reporting is done to some spiritual supervisor.  There is no one who will applaud and pat us on the back.  Heart work is invisbile to the eyes of others.  It is only seen by God.  Heart work is never easy because it requires honesty and transperancy before the One from whom we would like to hide the sinful broken part of us.  It is strange.  We want to hide who we really are from the only One who can forgive us and transform us into something better than just a better person.  Through the grace of God, we are not made better but new.