Unexpected Serenade

MoooOOOooo. MooOOOooo. That was the music lilting through the air last night; all night last night.

We live in Bakersfield, California. I know most people think it is a town full of cows and guys chewing straw, but that is far from accurate. This is a city of about 300,000 people, bustling with all sorts of activity. We have professional and semi-pro sports teams, at least 5 hospitals, a state-of-the art arena and convention center...James Taylor is performing here in a couple of weeks, for Pete's sake. But, indeed, we also are home to some amazing farm land and cattle ranches. I just didn't expect to have such a ranch near my big-city back yard. Our neighborhood is zoned for large animals and I have always found comfort in the rooster who wakes me up every morning. When we purchased our home a few years ago, we knew large animals living among us were a charming possibility. We just never thought it would really happen. Famous last words

Our lives often go this way, though. We find that comfortable rhythm, working with the quirks and bumps along the way, and make it all work somehow. We know there is always the possibility of something dropping into our life that we are not going to particularly enjoy, but we try not to think about it. Then it happens. It could be something as simple as our longed-for new baby having colic. It could be as complicated as our teenager making decisions we never expected they would make. Or maybe there is a deep desire that looks, for now, as though it is impossible to attain.

If we will allow it, God will use these times to help us grow into the people he wants us to become. I love what I read in Colossians 4:12 "Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured" (emphasis mine).

He not only wants to mature us through these disappointments and trials, he also wants us to be certain about who He is. He will see us through, but we will never know that for certain until we actually move through that disappointment or difficulty and look at it from the other end.

It is so cool that we serve a God who uses everything for His good. Sometimes he uses rebellious teenagers. Sometimes He uses cows.