Making Merry

We bid fond farewells to last week’s 50° weather as intermittent snow, wind and cold--down to a measly 1° yesterday morning—paid us a visit. I didn’t mind the return of winter, since it added a more seasonal ambiance to the weekend’s festivities: making sugar cookies and candy, a women’s breakfast, caroling at the home of a dear brother in Christ who’s battling brain cancer, decorating the church, and finally picking out a Christmas tree with Hubby. (It’s a small but gorgeous Colorado blue spruce, no doubt grown on a tree farm somewhere in the Northwest, where trees grow faster than they do here!)

In the midst of the merriment, I asked some folks, “Do you think we’ll have Christmas in heaven?”

One of them smiled. “Every day will be Christmas!”

 

“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” –PHILIPPIANS 4:4

 

Great Expectations

As of dusk last night, Blueberry is very likely pregnant, and 150 days hence, her kids should be born. According to the American Goat Society’s gestational calculator, her kidding date is Sunday, May 5, 2013. (Meels’ kids are expected the Tuesday prior.) Thankfully, we’ll be all done calving by then.

I doubt that Blueberry’s pregnancy will be followed as closely as that of the Duchess of Cambridge. The little ones surely won’t be as regal or renowned as Kate’s baby, but I can guarantee they’ll be adorable and oft-photographed!

Blueberry

 

 



“Be glad for all God is planning for you….” –ROMANS 12:12

Cow Therapy

I had the hardest time picking out a name for this heifer, as you may recall. My first instinct was to call her Shadow because the black on her face looked like a shadow of the Grinch. But who would want a gloomy name like that? One day, the black hair was swirled in such a way as to make it look like a cat sitting on her face, so Hubby suggested Miss Kitty. But the next morning, the cat was gone and the shadow had reappeared.

A week or two passed with no name, until I determined to focus on the white shape, not the dark. Then I saw it: light falling as if from one of those sparklers we played with as kids on the Fourth of July. And so she was christened Sparkle, an ever-present reminder to lighten up—on purpose!

Sparkle was shy at first but now is one of the friendliest heffies. She doesn’t like to be touched, but for some odd reason, she likes to come up and give our outstretched hands a slobbery sniff, maybe even a lick. For an even odder reason that I can’t explain, I always feel favored, even honored, when she does so. Who’d ever guess that a wet nuzzle from a black-and-white heifer could be so good for the soul?

There are therapy dogs and horses. Maybe Sparkle would make a good therapy cow.

 



“For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor….”   –PSALM 84:11

There, Somewhere

“Are you ready for Christmas?” a friend asked the other day.

Ready? I haven’t even put a tree up yet, or even picked one out. Sometimes we get a Forest Service permit, go to the mountains, and ski or snowshoe until we find just the perfect one. Nothing could be more fun; however, it pains my arborist’s heart to cut down a living tree. I’d be happy with an artificial one, but Hubby snubs them. I think a compromise might to buy one of the tree-farm firs at the hardware store; after all, it’s already given its life for the cause!

But first I need to find my lights. Twice I’ve climbed down and crawled into the crawl space under the house, where my decorations are stored, and searched every tub. No lights! Maybe I forgot to put them in the tubs last year and so stashed the lights somewhere else. But, where is somewhere?

In my search, I found a cache of beeswax candles that I’d lost. They’d make a nostalgic alternative to electric lights that would fit right in with my rustic decor, but I don’t want to risk a forest fire.

Speaking of candles and flames: a sweet, candle-faced heifer named Flame lights up our lives every day. May she do the same for you today!

 

 

“The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” –JOHN 1:5

 

 

Winky the Whale

Her official name is Winky, but lately I’ve been calling her Winky the Whale. For one thing, when viewed from the side, she’s colored somewhat like an orca. And, although she was one of the littlest heffies we bought last January, she’s since grown up, out, back, forth, and all around. I suppose that, since she’s with calf, Winky’s proportions will only become more and more whalish!

 



“I pray that you…may have power…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” –EPHESIANS 3:17-18

Second-Best Noel

Noel, which is another word for Christmas, simply means birth. Approximately 2,017 noels ago, the First (and Best) Noel happened. A star blazed. A donkey snorted. A young woman moaned. Her husband paced and prayed. The baby Savior and King took his first breath of earth-air. Angels sang. Sheep bleated. Shepherds ran, skipped, and leapt all the way to town.

The next-best noel, at least for me, happened nearly 14 noels ago. In a little church in a little town probably not much bigger than Bethlehem, the Savior and King asked me a question: Will you trust Me with your life and follow Me?

Only Jesus knew just what He was asking. For decades, I’d been taught that God was, at best, never pleased with me, and most of the time was angry with me. This concept had been emphasized with condemnation, accusation, vulgarity, obscenity, threat, and abuse—every bit of which, I was told, was God’s way of disciplining me. I believed that I deserved no better.

I finally ran away from that God of fear and shame but ended up surrounded by folks who passionately and gratefully loved a God whose love and grace was transforming their hearts and lives. I’d always been told that Christians were just deceived hypocrites. I hung around them anyway because they were so full of love, joy, peace, and hope—and I had absolutely none! On their wall hung a framed scripture that quite literally gripped my heart every time I read it:

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” –JEREMIAH 29:11

I figured such words were for good people, not someone like me who had made such a mess of her life while searching down every road that seemed to promise hope and a future but ended in brokenness and failure. But when Jesus asked me to trust Him with my life and future, I realized that He was my only hope.

I didn’t look up, fall on my knees, sing “Just as I Am”, or recite a prayer. I just whispered, “Okay.” No one on earth heard me, but later I found out that there was a lot of whooping and hollering in heaven that night—the night of my second-best noel.



 

 

Meels' Big Day

Meels went on a blind date this morning! He’s a handsome but stinky little dude named Cowboy, who was chosen partially for his outstanding dairy genetics but mostly for his dreamy blue eyes.

I was Meels' chaperone on this driveway rendezvous. She didn’t seem to mind Cowboy’s attentions but stayed close to me as if she was a bit bewildered. It took longer to get her out of the truck than it did to get her—how shall I say this delicately—with kid. Actually, Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats usually have twins or triplets, so I should say with kids.

When a doe is in heat, she’s paces restlessly and makes a lot of racket, looking for and calling in suitors, I suppose. But ever since I brought her home from her date, Meels has been quiet, even napping, although she should still be in heat. Could it be that she knows that now she’s what every doe was born to be, a mama?

 A mug of Cowboy when younger that shows his marvelous eyes. See more details and photos at www.wyogoats.com. Click on The Stinkers and scroll down.

 

“Day after day I was there, with my joyful applause, always enjoying His company, delighted with the world of things and creatures, happily celebrating the human family.” –PROVERBS 8:30-31