We learned an interesting thing about beef calves here on Home Farm this week. Apparently they enjoy partaking in a bit of electric fencing wire now and again. Once more I deeply appreciate the Internet - as OtherHalf was driven to a frenzy of research to find out if the calves were now doomed. Sure enough, it's not unheard of for animals to start nibbling away on fencing wire that's not live, and they will eat it right up eventually. In fact, these steers of ours will happily eat pretty much any kind of strange garbage, metal, string, whatever they can get hold of, really. Some of it will be regurgitated and rechewed until it gradually "passes away", but some of it could cause damage to their health. It's important to keep their fences in working order so they're kept in a safe environment... protecting them from their stupid selves.
Actually, we've seen quite a number of Great Escapes around here the last little while. I got to thinking about it yesterday, after our pastor brought up fencing in his sermon. He was talking about how God gives us "fences" for our lives; Biblical principles and guidelines that, when followed, keep us in the safe place of God's will for our lives. But just like the critters on our farm, people want to push the boundaries, get to the "greener" pastures, and we've got all kinds of ways of doing that.
Take The Twins for example. This summer a neighbor rented our pasture for some of his cattle. One cow had a pair of twins which were considerably smaller than the other new calves. These two became typical "fence crawlers" - they had no regard whatsoever for the barbed wire and one never knew where they'd be. Because of their habit of crawling through the fencing, they missed out on a lot of their mother's milk, they were unprotected from predators, and they could even wander out to the road into traffic. It didn't matter how many times we chased them back in, they never learned to stay in their proper pasture. Nobody wants fence crawlers on a farm.
My darling Willow has been pretty good about respecting her fence. She's in a new, unfinished paddock - only two strands of wire high on the posts. We also ran a strand of electric wire as an extra precaution, and she obviously knew to stay away from it - she wouldn't even accept a treat held over the fence! As the cold weather set in, however, the solar charger for the fence stopped charging, and eventually the wire went dead. We have the big round bales for feeding just outside Willow's pen, and there she stands day after day, facing the temptation of those huge lovely piles of food. One day she tested her fence, realized it wasn't painful to push it anymore - and succumbed. We found her head deep in a bale, a section of her fence looking like a bulldozer just plowed right through. But besides the dangers of walking through splinters of wood and tangles of wire, Willow is a type of horse that can easily suffer permanent health damage from overeating. Thankfully we had her back in her pen quickly and the fence repaired, and she seems to have learned her lesson.
Not like Banner, however. He's a horse-on-loan, a great huge beast, always hungry. He never out-and-out challenges the fence; he's a stretcher. Day after day he leans on the boards or the wire, slowly pushing against the boundaries, gradually stretching things further and further until he can reach far out of his rightful place. Sometimes the top board would snap in half, and he'd proceed to lean his barrel chest on the next board down. He learned that this type of escaping often goes overlooked, since he appeared to be where he was supposed to be - but he was still able to get what he wanted.
Sometimes an escapee isn't happy unless they take a crowd with them. Just a couple of weeks ago our handful of horses had walked across the frozen dugout, out of their winter forage pasture and into a mess of brush and deadfall along the creek that separates us from our neighbors. We'd hoped that they'd get hungry enough to come home for feed, but they seemed content to stay in "no man's land" for the long haul. The kids took out a bucket of oats and some halters and ropes to bring the wanderers home, but for some reason one mare spooked and headed straight for the fence. She crashed right into the wires, taking out five posts and about a hundred yards of fence. The rest of the horses followed her in a crazed stampede. Thankfully no one suffered any worse than a few cuts, scrapes and wire-shaved hair.
I look at the animals under our care and I wish that they could understand the purpose of the fences; that they would trust us to continue to provide all that they need in their proper places, and I can see how we all do the same thing with God. His will is our safe haven and He is our loving Shepherd who knows our needs better than we do. We have a tendency to listen to our flesh and gobble up bits of corruption that can wreak havoc on our spiritual lives. Some of us withstand temptation only until the consequences don't seem too painful - not seeing the full picture of the harm that can come to us. Often we even drag others along with us. We all know just how far we can push the limits and bend the rules, thinking we'll be ok as long as it looks like we're doing the right thing, but God sees our hearts and the rebellion within. And there will always be people that refuse to recognize God's authority and go their own way until no-one even tries to correct them anymore, and they'll never see the blessing they miss and the dangers they expose themselves to when they disregard God's will.
As we assess the past year and enter a new one my prayers include a desire to see and respect the fences that God has put in my life, and to encourage others to do the same. Contrary to worldly "wisdom" - freedom of choice, of self-expression... whatever folks want to call it these days - we will only experience true freedom and fullness of life when we seek and follow the perfect and trustworthy will of God.
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