New Life

Just after sunset new life came into the pasture across the way.  Early in the day one of our cows whose heaviness was not about the grass and hay eaten, but about the growing calf within her took herself apart from the herd and started pacing back and forth along the lower fence.  Though still a greenhorn when it comes to knowing about cows, I knew it was time for her to birth her calf.  Just after darkness had settled on the ground, the newborn calf dropped to the ground as well.  Though never a mother before this birth, the one who gave birth immediately started licking the new calf, nudging her, and pushing her up to take the life giving milk put aside for her.

 

It is always exciting when a calf is born around here.  Through the moma's cows licking and nudging, the new life is marked as one who belongs out there with the others.  The new calf has no initiation rite to fulfill to belong.  She does not have to come before the cow council for a vote.  She is dropped on the ground in the midst of a community where she immediately is given membership.  Unlike a cow brought in from another farm, this new calf born on this night belongs here.  She is one of them and also one of us. 

 

We all belong to our earthly parents, but we also belong to God and the community He has ordained for us to live.  Our problem is in accepting where we belong.  We look for acceptance and belonging in a host of wrong places before we follow our heart home to God.  It is not always an easy journey for us, but it is a journey that once started has a sure and certain end.  Nicodemus found his home through what Jesus spoke of as a new birth.  The new birth is our ticket home, too.  Those who are born of the Spirit never have to wonder where they belong, or to Whom they belong.