By: Tonya Stevenson
Tonight it was already dark before I got out, to bring in my milk cow for my bummed calf to suck. Ellie is a little notorious to hide, especially in the dark. I am trotting around the pasture bareback on a blue roan mare that I haven’t ridden bareback a lot, straining to identify dark shapes in a black pasture. Unable to time the pivot heads we took a soaking crossing under. Can’t spot anything up at Reservoir, turning toward the northeast corner I think I see the dark forms of what I hope are the cows, but as I grow nearer the whinnying and pounding of hooves make obvious it is the horses instead. My mare gets a little antsy and I pull her off to the side, so as not to chase the herd. Continuing back under the pivot for another drenching, I head back toward the barn wondering where the cows could be. Then I spy dark shadows, not far from where I had ridden out. Wandering through the herd I pick out the lightest colored one and head her to the barn.
After putting my horse up, I go back to turn the calf in on the cow only to discover no calf in the shed or pen. I had let her out of the shed so she could run around and apparently she had escaped.
“Well,” I think, I’ll never find and bring in that black calf in the dark.” Then I hear a bawl and two figures emerge from the dark, a yearling and a calf. “Thanks, Lord.” I halter my cow and open the gate and drive the calf in, cutting off the yearling.
In the quiet of the evening as I wait for the calf to finish her dinner, I look up into a clear sky. Almost directly above me is the big dipper, and a nearly half moon to the west. A serene clear night full of brilliant stars; but as I gaze around the panorama in the south-east the sky is ripped by continuous lightning bolts illuminating heavy clouds, a spectacular violent display, changing instantaneously jagged strike after jagged strike. In the north-east a similar but lesser storm pops. I was too far away to hear their thunder, thus it gave more the impression of a majestic fireworks show, while my two thirds of the sky remains a beautiful quiet night. I marveled at the unique sight before me silently praising God for the ever changing beauty of his creation, as I have so many times before.
As I watched I thought of our world, so rocked by hate and violence, yet in Christ we can know that peace that passes understanding and still marvel and be thankful for a thousand simple blessing every day. We can rest in His finished work on our behalf for all eternity.
Yes, I was blessed tonight as, “The heavens declared the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” Psalm 19:1
photo credit – Dhinal Chheda
