Sometimes when Jupiter is in-line with Mars, and when the moon is in the third phase crazy events shape and mold our lives in obscure ways. I often wonder what puppet master is controlling the Universe to his egotistical delight. Superstitious as that line of thought is, it is also insensible. A person of the scientific natue may agree with that statement, but I am not scientific, for science hasn't cured anything with my crazy life, or made anything alright. So only spiritual reasonings can justify the things that make sense in mhy life today. For me life changing events are in overdrive, but in my life lately they seem to be on cruise control.
I made it back out on the line last week. What a change it has been from the world of my home. No more sleeping in. Putting gas in the tank more often. Dealing with co-workers. I even get to see my fiancé more often. Also, I don't get to see the kids as much, and that is a big change, even though we talk as much as they want to, and often.
Nevertheless, the biggest change that I see is the one of recognition of myself as one of God's children. I had a hard time describing or putting into words what I was feeling with all this change. It wasn't a bad thing. I just felt a need to acknowledge it, to pin it down, to name it, perhaps to own it, or at least apprehend it so that I could comprehend it.
Then today it happened, or actually it began yesterday. I was at the Roosevelt Park zoo in Minot with Brenda on Thursday. what a great place to go and just hang out, and talk about things. Yes, we have even more to talk about lately. Yep, that's right... getting hitched.
Anyway, two exhibits really caught my attention. The giraffes and zebras and huge cats were way so cool, but it was the North American animals that captivated my interests. First stop was the wolves. It was neat to see how shy they were, yet in the the presence of full awareness. they constantly paced the boundaries of their fence, and when seemingly frustrated, they crawled into their den. It wasn't like watching wolves in the wild, and I have been blessed to see them play in the wild and watch them play, and wished I had that wild freedom.
The second stop that grabbed me were the bears. Grizzly Bears. They seemed so much like beggars, and selfish fighting for theirs space. Just longing to be on the outside. To me, they were wild animals and shouldn't be in a cage, yet they were provided for, in good health, and , yet just not happy. It seems that people have the tendency to project their emotions onto animals, and we want to think they were not happy, when as far as a wolf or bear goes, they had all the could need.
Today out on the line, we were working through some rancher's cow pasture. Low and behold, fences seemed to keep getting in our way. We have to open them to get out machines through, and close them right away behind us to make sure the farmer's cow's don't get out through the hole we make. You would think it wouldn't make a difference when half the calves are running outside the fence anyway it seems. Some of the critters spend half their day trying to get back in like this one calf who paced back and forth for three hours trying to get his way back into the fence to be with the others.
It is all part of the job and we do it anyway. Then it dawned on me. Psalm 23 says, "He leads me to green pastures." Before I was like a wild animal, resenting boundaries and seeing myself as a caged wolf or bear. One who did not belong with others of domesticated variety. Now that I define myself as a child of God, I see myself as more like that stray calf, having tested the realm of the world outside the fence. I long to get back in with others like me, a member of the human-race, the Beloved. And it is within these boundaries that one finds true freedom and happiness. As a wild animal the thought of it all would seem unsensible.
Today I got up early, went to work, paid my bills, drove the speed limit for the most part, helped others around me, I gave thanks for what I had, I told the people that mean the most to me that I loved them. I kept myself clean, and I am grateful that I see 44 when I never believed that I would live to see 30. Thank you God for making me your child, and for the pain and scars of the barbed wire when I slipped back underneath the fence.
