Ever wonder what makes a cow do what a cow does? She slowly moves along, munching on grass, seemingly without any particular goal in mind. Then suddenly she sees a juicy morsel on the other side of the fence. What does she do? If the gate is open she walks on through and continues to eat! If it's closed she sticks her head through any opening possible and eats the grass on the other side. After all, the grass is always greener and it just has to taste better!
This is a true story of the miracle of the wandering cows. It's not documented by the Catholic Church, but it is definitely a tale of divine intervention. I believe that God showers us with miracles every day, but unless they're covered by the six o'clock news, we rarely hear about them. The following event is a no-brainer; this was definitely a miracle from God!
My friend Carol and her family built their home many years ago just outside our town. Due to progress spurred on by the space industry, our town has grown larger than any of our founding fathers could have imagined. Land that was in the country thirty years ago is now in the city.
Their house and their neighbor's house and pasture is now surrounded by roads and highways. Their pastures are home to a few cattle, a couple of goats and a donkey which roam the field munching on grass. There is always the fear that someone will forget to shut the gate and the animals will wander onto the road and be struck by a car.
One rainy afternoon her neighbors were out of town and it was her duty to feed the animals. There were only a half dozen cows, but they still had to be herded to the barn and fed grain. Slipping and sliding through the mud, Carol wondered again why cows were so stupid that they wouldn't get out of the rain and into a nice warm barn. Finally, they were fed and they began to drift back out into the pasture munching wet grass as they walked over the wet grass.
As Carol came to the pasture gate with the cows slowly following her, her cell phone rang. Her husband told her of an emergency involving another friend who had to be rushed to the hospital. She opened and shut the gate and ran to her house to change out of the muddy clothes. All this took only a few precious minutes and then they were hurrying to the local hospital some thirty minutes away.
For those who have been unfortunate enough to have visited any emergency room in this country, you know that it is a law that you have to spend at least two hours in the waiting room before you're called into the actual emergency room. Then it's another two hours before a real doctor sees you.
Thankfully the friend was treated and was able to go home after four hours. Carol decided to stop by the neighbor's house to make sure everything was in order. As they drove into the driveway, she gasped as she saw the open gate to the pasture. In her hurry, she had forgotten to put the pin in the latch to keep the gate shut!
Every one of those cows was happily munching on the spring grass inside the fence! One, two, three four, five and six! They were all there! Not a one had ventured through the opening into the yard and ultimately onto the road just a few yards away!
Nothing is more tempting to a cow than a chance to wander through an open gate. Upon seeing such an opening, her mouth starts watering and visions of new tastier morsels of sweet young grass start dancing in her head. When six cows are wandering around the pasture, the odds are that one of them will be marching through that opening to the world outside the pasture!
This was a miracle paramount to the parting of the waters! For four hours God had prevented the cows from walking through the open gate! This is a miracle of epic proportions. Was God protecting the cows or my friend Carol from having to shoulder the blame for having left the gate open? I believe though, that it's just an example of God's love. There are miracles every day for all of us if we just look for them!
