(Not the cow from my blog)
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In the past several weeks I have resumed my counseling
ministry, as a residential ministry for previously incarcerated women where I
served as staff counselor closed over a year ago.
The church is about a half hour by car from my home, and early
on as I drove to that location, I noticed several cows in a small pasture by a
house. I didn’t think much about the large bovines, until one day I noticed one
of what I presume are Holsteins, a mostly white cow, had a black cross on its
side. Granted, it wasn’t as perfectly shaped as your average gold cross someone
wears around his or her neck, but it was certainly close enough. I suppose the
cross beams, as it were, were about a foot and a half wide, and the vertical
portion of the cross was close to two feet in length.
I didn’t think of it at the time or I would have stopped for a
picture. However, from that day onward, I was admittedly a little obsessive
about snapping a photo.
A few days later my wife and I drove over to the church and
noticed the cows weren’t in the pasture. Another day I meant to take my wife’s smart
phone with me, (I have an old fashioned flip phone), and I forgot it. Of
course, that was the day ‘the cow with the cross on her side’ was front and
center.
And just a couple of days ago, Jean and I drove back over. As
she pulled the car along side the pasture, I noticed five or six cows doing
what cows do best; munching on grass and chewing their cuds. I stepped out of
my car, and ambled along the shoulder of the road. However, try as I may, I did
not see the cow with the cross on her side.
Pt. 2
As a writer it occurred to me that for all my trouble, there
must be a moral of the story. Perhaps God was trying to tell me something much greater
and more profound than snapping and posting a picture of a cow with a cross on
her side.
And then it struck me. There are times when we can’t see the
cross, that is, when the presence of Jesus seems to be missing. And while there
is no correlation between good and evil, I think it is very much like Elijah
when he poked fun at the prophets of Baal.
“Pray harder! Maybe your God is traveling or asleep. Maybe he’s
on vacation. Maybe he’s in the bathroom!”
I think sometimes we feel this way when we can’t see the
cross. But you know, God is not dependent on a certain feeling, emotion or
sensation. Unlike that cow with the cross on her side, God is there for his
children all the time.
Mother Teresa experienced some significant depression in her
life, and she spoke and wrote about having rarely experienced the sensation
that Jesus was present. However, in spite of the seeming lack of His tangible
presence, she believed and trusted He was there with her, and operated
accordingly. She trusted God’s Word, and believed the words of the Savior.
“Lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world.”
(Matt. 28:20)
I don’t know if I will ever get a picture of that cow with the
cross on her side, but I do know that the cross, and the man who hung on that
cross has promised to be with us always, as long as we live, and breathe, and
move, and when this life is done, those who love Him will live in His presence
forever.
by William McDonald, PhD
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