By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
(Excerpted from Always Before Me)
American lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein II, said the hills were alive with the sound of music.
Where I once lived, that music played against spring-green hillsides. Black angus cattle dotted the scene like quarter notes on a musical score. In the spring, each cow had a calf at her side, and she paced her stride to match its own youthful steps.
The calves shone like onyx in the morning sun, dark and sleek against the grass their mothers grazed. There was a tenderness in it all – in the grass, in the animals, in the freshness of the mornings – a moment set against the rush of time when nothing mattered but the protection and nurturing of new life.
I drove through that landscape every weekday morning on my way to school. And in the late afternoons I returned on the same road to find long shadows thrown across the pastures by the grazing cattle.
One day the cows had turned their eyes away from the low sun, and their backs toward the west. I slowed to watch them, wondering what there was of God out in that pasture. I knew there was something – something He would show me of Himself if I paused in my hurry home and searched for His message.
The cow closest to the fence line along the road stood at an odd angle, sideways to the slanting sunlight. Her shadow stretched wide across the grass, and several feet away lay her resting calf, tucked exactly within the edges of her cool shade, sheltered from the heat of the day.
She knew exactly how to stand to shade her calf, and she stayed there until the glare of the sun had passed.
Our God knows too. He knows we need respite from the heat of worry and stress. He also knows when we need it, and He is there to let us rest in the shadow of His presence.
And if we still our hearts and listen, we may hear the music of His love around us.
~
Oh God of all comfort, thank you for knowing us better than we know ourselves, and for giving us exactly what we need. Amen.
He who dwells in the secret place
of the Most High
shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty.
Psalm 91:1
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
#lovingthecowboy
(c) 2024 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
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This is such an encouraging devotional. I have been through it twice now.
Thank you so much, Elaine. I’m glad it’s a blessing to you.