April 04, 2011

Till The Cows Come Home

Read: Luke 15:4-7

Living in rural Tennessee has exposed me to a very different set of neighbors. The ones I’m referring to here are the cows, sheep and horses. (I’ll focus on the people in a different devotion some day.) I am surrounded by mooing and bleating. One day there was a lot of loud and pitiful mooing. The first thought I had was that one of the young cows had gotten itself stuck in the fence. After a while I noticed a trailer going down my neighbor’s drive and out into the street. A cow chased it as far as it could along the fence, mooing the entire time. Inside the trailer was a baby cow mooing back. After the baby left, its mother stayed by the fence mooing. In fact the mooing continued all day and, according to my daughter whose bedroom is on that side of the house, all night too. 

Even now I am heartbroken at the memory of both of their pitiful cries. In Luke 15, Jesus’ message about a shepherd not giving up on even one sheep, shows that same commitment. On the days when I clean out our horses’ stalls, the silence gives me time to think. I often think about my children (not because the horse manure reminds me of them!) No matter what problem I’m considering, I always know that nothing could ever make me stop loving them or wanting them to be a part of my life. When I think of all three of these things, I can hear Heidi singing “Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling” (UMH 348)

So if a cow, a shepherd and a human mother refuse to give up on their charges, how could we ever think that God would give up on any of us? Certainly the love and commitment we can feel and imagine can’t compare at all to the love and commitment God feels for us. He will call to us, He will search for us, and He will always want us to be a part of His family. If God loves and accepts us all, shouldn’t we also love and accept each other?

Prayer: Thank you God for your unconditional love. Help us to accept and love each other. Help us also to hear your call and to come to you. Amen.

Jacki Rumpp