Behold

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

James 5:16b

You may recall my story about loading the pigs a while back. Well, last week was the week to load the steers. The 1000+ pound steers. Usually the truck can come early in the morning before Rob has to leave for work, but this time they had to schedule for late morning. So my first prayer was that Rob could get off of work for an hour-or-so to relieve me from having to chase cows. Answer number one. My second prayer, and Rob's too, was that they would load easy as we have had our share of cow-loading-horror stories.

This walk with God has become interesting. I realize that He doesn't have to answer my prayers the way that I want Him to, and often times when I put Him in a box and will only accept one specific answer I am disappointed. But when my hands are open, and my expectations are for whatever His will is, I always find myself amazed.

All that we asked for was that the three steers would load well, which makes our day easier, plus gives us yet another chance to share God's answered prayers with the truck driver who is beginning to notice the little miracles of loading critters on our farm. And, just for some more icing on the cake, Cole came out to see if we needed help as the trailer pulled into the driveway and became a witness, yet again, to answered prayers. I said to him, "Cole, I prayed that those steers would load easy, and so did Dad. Let's watch and see what God does." So we both stood in the farmyard and watched.

A little coaxing on our end was to be expected, of course, to get the beasts into the trailer. The truck and trailer backed up into the loading chute as Rob directed them into the opening, and, no kidding, before the driver put the truck into park the first steer was already looking into the open door. Rob stretched out his arm and simply said, "Behold!"

One steer into the trailer, without Rob even moving, and the second one close behind. The driver got out and started to come around the passenger side of the truck when I told him, "You better hurry up, Brian, because they're almost loaded." He couldn't believe it and quickly ran around to open the 2 inside trailer gates. Steer number three walked into the trailer, then all three walked right up front where they belonged, and the driver shut the gates behind them. Then we got to stand around and talk about God for a while.

Behold . . . my God who loves to give good gifts to His children.