Bovine Lessons

When I stepped out of the pulpit for the last time ten years ago,  I did not know that the dying echoes of organ music would soon be replaced by the evening sound of Canadian Geese honking overhead.  So many things have turned up as unplanned surprises.  One of the things planned was to have a couple of cows so home grown grass fed beef could be food on the table.  And while that goal has been realized I could not have imagined back then that there would be eleven cows grazing in the pasture across the way. 

 

The journey to having a small herd of cows was not exactly a straight line.  It was more like they came here than me going out to get them.  Two cows with two calves got things started.  Through the A-I work of a nearby bovine guru there was one calf after another.  Sharing the land with them has been a joy and an education.  The first thing I learned from them came when I watched them chewing their cud, or ruminating.  The work of a cow is grazing on green grass and eating hay when the green season is gone.  My work is to see that they have green grass and hay.  After eating their fill which goes in one of their four stomachs, they sit down, regurgitate, and chew and chew before swallowing again.

The writers of spiritual stuff would call the process meditating.  I have come to prefer ruminate.  Ruminating speaks of taking in some Word, or some experience with the Holy, and chewing on it awhile.  It speaks of resting with that Word, digesting it, and letting it become a source of energy and life. These cows have taught me the value of not being in a hurry.  Whatever it is that is out there for us will come if we can just learn to wait and chew on whatever it is that God has given us to chew.