Emphasis Preaching Journal

Besides being a Presbyterian minister, Katharine Worthington is a veterinarian. Over the years Katharine has worked with quite a few newborn foals that can't quite get the hang of nursing. Enough so that during foaling season she sometimes shakes her head and says, "There is nothing stupider than a newborn foal!" Quite often, a mare is so full of milk she is uncomfortable, leaking milk, and even squirting it out of her udder as she moves, and yet the foals can't quite figure what it is they need or how to get it into their hungry stomachs. Some foals charge about with an attitude and try to nurse on almost anything in sight -- fences, every part of each of the mare's legs, her side, even get tangled up in the mare's tail -- they try everything but the mare's udder. Katharine places them close to the mare and uses her arms and the mare's body to form a fence. Some foals just sort of shrink into themselves. She can put her finger in their mouths, and lead their lips right up to the udder, and almost get the nipple in their mouth, but then they mouth it, grit their gums, shake their heads and back up or try the mare's ankle. Others just sort of stand there waiting ... demanding. They resist being moved. If you ignore their stiffened splayed out legs and pry and shove them next to the right end of the mare, and if you push hard against the back of their heads to position them so they can find the nipple, the foals might arch their neck and push right back against you just as hard as it can. And all that is accomplished is to make the foal resist all the more. You can't force a nursing posture on foals! No matter what technique is used -- fencing them in with your arms, leading their mouths to the nipple, even milking the mare and tube-feeding the foals so they get that all-important first milk (colostrum), the primary ingredient is ... patience.

How much patience and loving kindness our God must have to wait with arms outstretched around us, trying to keep us where it is safe and where we might find life, and all the while we go around, flapping our lips and searching elsewhere. How much patience our God has in trying to draw us toward what is necessary food for life, even though we shake our heads in panic and say, "No! Not for me!" How much patience and lovingkindness our God must have to resist cranking us into shape although we go on demanding and resisting with all our might. It seems so odd that we should have the very stuff of life right in front of us, God's grace and salvation, and we should have such a hard time latching onto it. (PresbyNet/Ecunet)