Living on a farm is amazing, but it can be mentally, physically, and even spiritually exhausting. Not only are the hours long, and the work hard, but the circle of life plays out in real time over and over again, day in and day out. Everyone loves the baby calves, or the newborn lambs, until one day things don’t go as planned, and then there isn’t such a happy ending. As heartbreaking as situations can be, farmers realize that death is a part of life, and we often wipe our tears and move on to the next pasture. But sometimes we have a string of bad outcomes that begin to weigh too heavily on our hearts. Too many loses too quickly, or the loss of a special animal that has worked it’s way into our lives. This can take a toll even on the most experienced farmer. When this happens, it is time to stop, to reflect, and to regroup.
I am there.
One morning this week I watched as a healthy black and white cow give her calf a post breakfast bath. The chocolate-colored little heifer with the white spot on her head, held her chin up with her eyes closed, as her mama licked her under her neck. As the sun came up behind them, I smiled and thought “this is the epitome of happiness”. That evening I stopped by the shop to ask my husband what time he wanted to eat. He casually mentioned that there was a cow to bury first. “Which cow?” I asked. “The black and white one that we got a couple of weeks ago. She was fine one minute, and gone the next.”
My heart sank. The chocolate calf with the white spot on her head. It was already dark, but I decided to drive out to the pasture. I found her walking around, inconsolably crying for a mama that would not be coming back. As my heart was breaking, God reminded me of the sparrow.
As much as this situation tugs at our heartstrings, I am comforted to know that God knows the situation with this calf. However, no matter how sad I feel, I realize this situation pales in comparison to what we as a society are going through right now. A father, a mother, a husband, a sibling, a wife, a child…. Tragically people are losing their loved ones every day. So how do we press on? How do we move forward as individuals? As a nation?
We remember the sparrow. Just as God knows each and every sparrow (or calf), He knows each of His children, whom He loves even more. So we should turn to our Heavenly Father and know that as long as we are His, the darkness has no power over us, and our eternal future is as bright as the morning sun.
