SOO-OO COW!

On many small dairy farms at milk time cows are trained to come in from the pasture with a signal.  It may be a truck horn honking.  It could be the clanging of buckets together accompanied by loud whistles. It could be someone yelling, "Soo-OO cow! Soo-OO cow! Come on!"  On the Chapman farm, we opted for the latter, sometimes with the addition of the truck horn.  And man, those cows would magically appear over the hilltop, walking, then trotting, to the gate.  They knew a meal of sweetened grain waited for them in the barn.

We would open the gate and guide the cows across the road to the lot where we would let them into the barn a few at a time.  Most of those cows went across the road through the lot gate without any problem.  But occasionally there would be a rogue cow who decided to bless us with an attitude and make a break for it.  Depending on who was monitoring the road, the language and tone could be quite entertaining as we would scramble after the belligerent bovine.

Dad:  "Git back in there!  GIT! You %#$# cow!"

The Sisters:  "Aw shoot!  Come on, you stupid cow!"

Mom:  (clapping hands) "Soo-OO cow!  SOO COW!"

Me:  (throwing rocks) "Mama! Daddy!  Heeelp!!"

Somehow, they rarely got away.  We would herd them back into the crowd where they would run into the lot, settle down, and wait their turn to get their grain snack and be milked.

Every one of us Believers has taken a run for it at one time or another (and some of us multiple times!).  We sometimes feel a need to experience the other side.  We often consciously step outside of what we know to be grace-filled and right, sometimes for great lengths of time.  Just like the cow who, even though she knew from experience that a trough of grain awaited her, decided to turn the other way, we get side-tracked and turn away from our relationship with Christ.

But you know what?  He doesn't leave us.  He chases us down.  He puts circumstance and events in our path that remind us He's still there.  He puts other Believers on our heels.  His Spirit prompts the synapsis of our brain to remember His goodness.  You see, the One who extended such grace to rescue us for eternity will not turn aside and forget us.

And here's the even better part:  we will come back to Him and confess and seek His forgiveness and He'll say, "What are you talking about?"  That's right.  "What sin?"

As far as the east is to the west...grace.  Grace.  He calls us to follow, to come back to Him.

Soo-OO cow and amen!
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"So He told them this parable : 'What man among you who has 100 sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it ?' " (Luke 15:3-4)

"As far as the east is from the west , so far has He removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12)