“a different perspective”

As I was driving our little beat up Toyota (Little Blue), to feed the goats and sheep, there, standing in the path was a cow. She wasn’t upset, or stressed out, she was just out exploring. As I watched her investigate a group of cows in the “beaver pond pasture”, I decided to make a quick phone call to my husband to see where this cow belonged. I found out that the cow with the “yellow #1 tag” appeared to be trying to get back in to the wrong pasture.

“Just leave her alone, and I will get her in when I get back.”He said. I must admit, I was relieved. Chasing cows is not nearly as fun as playing with baby goats?. So Little Blue made a big semicircle around “yellow #1, and I headed to tend to the sheep and the goats.

About 45 minutes later, I came back towards the shop, but “yellow #1” was nowhere to be found. The gates were closed, so she couldn’t get to the road, but it was getting late and she needed to be back where she belonged. “This cow has been everywhere”! I said out loud as I followed her tracks on the four-wheeler, all to no avail. I hoped she had not headed deep into the woods, away from the protection of the herd, and Judah, the Anatolian Shepard that protects this area.

The sound of diesel engines and the loud metal clanging of hay trailers in the distance announced the arrival of my husband and his helpers. “I can’t find her. Maybe she went back in the pasture on her own?”, I said shrugging my shoulders? “Well, I’ve got to get this hay unloaded. Maybe we will find her before dark”, he said as he climbed into the tractor.

I just sat there on the four-wheeler feeling pretty helpless. I had done all that I knew to do, and night was coming quickly. Then, I looked up. The TOWER!!

It’s amazing what you can see from above! Looking down from on high, it all makes sense. There that heifer was! Lying in the tall weeds (knowing I was looking for her), just a short distance from where I had been earlier. Isn’t that how God sees our lives? We see the problem, He sees the “big picture”. Wouldn’t it be great if we could only see the “big picture” in hard times? We get lost in the weeds, worrying about our problems when all we need to do is look up! Sometimes God let’s us exhaust all of our options, so we will look to Him for answers. 

Isn’t it awesome that He sees our hiding heifers when we are still playing with the baby goats?!  In other words, He knows our problems before we do, and he has the answers to those problems….we just have to look to Him for guidance.

Just as this underutilized tower stands on our farm, God stands as an often underutilized fortress for all of us. He is always ready for us to “look up” and ask Him for help. If I had climbed this tower at the beginning of this “heifer hunt”, I could have saved SO MUCH time! Shouldn’t we go to God first with our problems rather than turning to Him as a “last resort”?

Through this experience, I am happy to say that I have learned something. Often, God is referred to as a “High Tower” in the Bible. I have always thought that was strange, until now. Now, I get it?. Psalm 18:2 (KJV) The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.