Until the cows come home

My husband adores cows, and has ever since he spent time every summer at his Grandpa’s farm. We have been looking forward to adding Highland cows to our farm for a few months. We were finally able to bring them home on December 24. My husband let them out in the pasture and immediately went to the barn to get them some fresh hay. In those few minutes, our nightmare began. They managed to cross the very large wooded pasture and find a combination of deep snow and a low fence and head to the neighbors.

That started a very long 48 hours of tracking them through snowy, swampy woods and pastures. We are very good at tracking cow prints now! I’m pretty sure I went through at least 7 pairs of socks and 2 pairs of boots because I kept stepping in the creek hiding under the snow.

We learned so much in that two days, but it mostly came down to two things: community and prayer.

We were overwhelmed with how many of our neighbors gave up their Christmas to hike through snowy woods, contact neighbors, set up a corral, and support us in our search. It sure put things in perspective. I think we as Torah believers can sometimes subconsciously elevate ourselves. Yet, we were surrounded by people who understood how to love their neighbor, and they celebrated Christmas. It shifted our perspective and gave us a new appreciation for those who live around us. We know we can count on them and will be doing our best to reciprocate that.

Our community of believers was equally incredible. They immediately starting praying and spreading the word. Those who were able came out to help. Torah friends of ours from over 2 hours away came up to help look. Wow!

Community is so important. My husband and I are both introverts and tend to stay to ourselves. But, Yah has been drawing us out into community and while it’s sometimes uncomfortable, He has blessed us through others in so many ways. We need each other, whether we admit it or not.

We also learned a lot about prayer, how it works and how much we don’t understand. We prayed hard for those two days. We searched our hearts to see if we needed to confess anything that might have caused this. We prayed Scripture. We asked for favor, especially when we would get particularly close to catching them. But we still had to go home without them two nights and it was so hard. By the time we headed out on Thursday to search, we were starting to wonder if Yah wasn’t hearing us. What were we missing? When I brought this up at our fellowship on Shabbat, I discovered that this feeling is near universal. We all have moments where we feel like Yah is not hearing our prayers. Doubt creeps in, when we are supposed to be praying in faith.

Yah was listening and working, but we couldn’t see it until after. When we found the cows, suddenly we could see the whole plan, and how He was working the whole time. But He didn’t show us until He was good and ready. Look at all the ways He was working!

  • We had deep snow, which made for easy tracking.
  • We have a buffalo farm on the next road, which kept them relatively close.
  • Our children were troopers, and either helped us in the woods or were home preparing food for when we got home.
  • So many of the people who helped us have raised cows their whole life, and were able to anticipate their behavior.
  • They were ultimately located at a cattle farm where they “broke in” to be with other cattle. My brother-in-law knew the farmer and immediately had him on the phone. The cows were right next to their 8 foot high corral and chute, so they were extremely easy to catch.
  • We had them home just in time to celebrate Hanukah with some new friends.
  • My husband sat in the car and admitted that he may never get them back. At that very moment, I ran up to the window yelling, “They found them! They found them!” Yah’s timing is always perfect.

What lessons can we take forward from this?

  • Value and invest in the people in your life. Yah knows we need each other.
  • Spend way more time in prayer. Study it in Scripture. Pray alone. Pray with others. Pray. Pray. Pray.
  • When you feel like Yah is not hearing you, remember that He is answering multiple overlapping prayers all at the same time. We were praying for our cows to come home. Our neighbors had a strong desire to get to know us. In His infinite wisdom, Yah answered all those prayers at the same time.
  • Be quicker to ask Yah for help. We can have independent spirits and try to solve everything ourselves, praying as a last result. Praying should be our first stop, then rolling up the sleeves and looking for solutions.

There is so much more that could be said. It’s like Yah turned our cows into a 48 hour mini course. What have you learned recently about community and prayer and trust?

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