A Time

It was one of those perfect afternoons.  High above white clouds raced across the canopy of blue which covered the farm; yet, down among the pecan trees, hardly a breeze could be felt on a face warmed by the Spring sun.  As I stood there aware of my small place in this moment of serendipity, the cows out in the pasture caught my attention.  They had given up grazing and settled down on the earth to chew their cud.  It was a picture of rest and peace.  Suddenly, my mind went to a most familiar part of the Scripture which says, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven."  (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

 

Cows spend most their day working.  Their work is eating grass and hay.  But, they also know when to stop their grazing and settle down, get still, and bring up that food from one of their stomachs to chew on it some more.  Watching made me think about myself and others who are like me.  We do not always practice the wisdom of these bovine creatures.  We forget that rest is a part of the order to which we were created.  We rush and hurry, seldom stop, and call it living.

 

Maybe it is a kind of living, but it is not the living we were created to do.  We were created for seasons of rest, times of quietness, moments when we realize who we really are, and Who it is that is providing for us.  To replay the mantra for these days of my life, we were created to pay attention to where we are and who is with us.  When we rush through our life forgetting to chew our cud, we miss out on something as necessary for our soul as air is to our body.