Get Back in That Pen!

We have quite a few baby calves around the farm right now. But one pen, here in front of the house, has quite a few calves that are all relatively the same age. Those calves consistently escape to explore and more than once we have had to tell them to get back in that pen!

That pasture is surrounded on two sides by a wooden fence. But on the other two sides, there is only a single strand of hot wire. At this age, the calves are just small enough that they can walk directly under the hot wire without getting shocked. They just walk right out of the pen and get into trouble!

One day, husband was checking on the beehives, which border that pasture on the west, and noticed that one of them had been knocked over… We suspect the culprits to be the calves. Every day it seems that the babies are in the driveway either running and playing, or even napping, and just generally being nosy.

Sometimes when the calves are out, the moms continue to eat in the field with just an occasional look towards the area where the young ones are. The cows tend to let the babies roam and wander and just keep an eye on them. But I noticed, that as we drive into the driveway the mothers tend to come to the fence and begin to call their babies back. Some of the calves are a little older and remember where they got out and can get themselves back in, but some of the younger ones just cannot remember the way.

Thinking about these calves getting out of the pen made me remember a conversation I had with my oldest one day when he was about 12 years old. (I have a notebook where I tried to write all the “wisdom” and funny things my kids have said over the years!) He said to me, “Mom, being in the will of God is a lot like being a chicken.” I was not following his logic so of course my response was “Huh?” He said, “Yeah, being in the will of God is a lot like being a chicken. You’re safer in the pen than you are outside of the pen. When you’re outside the pen the predators can catch the chicken. Just like when you’re outside of the will of God you’re more likely to be attacked by the enemy.”

My, my, what a profound statement! How many times have we, just like a chicken that has gotten out of the pen, just like those little calves that have escaped the safety of the fence, found ourselves following our own way, following our own plan, and ended up outside of the will of God. We then find ourselves in trouble and scrambling to get back in His will. Or worse yet, we realize that we have lost our way and just can’t seem to find our way back to Him at all.

It’s in those times, when we have followed our own path and not His, that is very easy for us to blame God for how our situation has turned out. It’s even easier to blame others around us for where we find our self. When all we have to do is point the blame back at our own selves. We, just like those little calves, walk out from under that fence. Just like the chicken, we escaped the pen and we find ourselves outside of the will of God.

How fitting that the scripture that comes to mind is Matthew 23:37 ESV, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” God wants us in his will, not out on our own. He wants us to follow His plan. He wants us inside the pen! Just like the chicks are safe under the hen’s wings, He wants us in His will where we are safe and protected. What’s the problem then? Jesus pointed it out very clearly, “and you were not willing!” We went our own way….

Maybe today, you find yourself outside of the pen. Whether you found your own way out or followed a friend, you have realized that you are no longer in the perfect will of God. If that’s you, if you find yourself outside of the pen, listen! Listen to your Father. He’s calling you. He’s calling you to come back to the pen. Just like our mother cows call to their babies, just like a mother hen clucks to her chicks. He’s calling, won’t you listen?

Don’t ignore him. Don’t delay in turning around and making your way back into the field, back into the pen. It’s very easy to get caught by the enemy and blame God for our choices and our mistakes when we are the ones that left the fence.

I read a story on a farm page the other day about a missing calf. The newborn calf had been missing for two days and the farmer had just about given up hope of finding it. But he went a little farther in looking for the calf outside of the field, beyond the fence , looking for any sign of the calf. As he did, he heard the soft mooing of the young calf. He found the baby caught in a hole about 4 foot deep, just a short distance from the pasture where its mother was. The calf had ventured out of the pen somehow, and had fallen into this deep hole and found itself trapped. Was it the farmer’s fault that the calf had fallen into the hole? No, the farmer had placed the calf safe in a pen, with a fence, but the calf had chosen to leave the pen and go under or through the fence, and found its way into danger. The farmer was able to remove the calf from the whole and reunite it with its mother in the safety of the pasture.

I pray you hear the words of a little 12-year-old boy today. “God’s will is a lot like being inside the pen.” It’s safer there. Outside the fence are dangers and predators that God is trying to keep us from. Come back! Come back! Ask Him for forgiveness, forgive yourself and come back! Get back in that pen today!

Isaiah 53:6-8 (ESV)⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;