Babe, the Big Brown Bovine

We once raised an orphaned calf in our back yard. She was a pathetic little creature with her clubfoot and stunted growth, but we gave her the best care available. Every morning and evening we, that is, I, would call her up and bottle-feed her. She learned to hear me coming and would invariably knock me down in her excitement to see me, or the bottle. I’m not sure which one was the most important to her. She was just a baby when we found her, so we named her Babe.

Babe grew up in our yard, with the dogs and cats. She helped to keep the grass trimmed, but that was the extent of her usefulness. Because she spent all of her existence living with our dogs, she began to take on their characteristics. Whenever a car would pull into the driveway, she would hobble to the visitors making a grunting sound that somewhat resembled a dog’s bark. She would run at the cats. She would curl up with the dogs under the mesquite trees. She would follow us around the yard whenever we were chopping firewood or hoeing the garden. She was a dog as far as she was concerned.

But she had one problem. Across the fence from the yard was a pasture. Periodically, we would keep our first-year heifers on that patch of grass. Babe would lay down in the yard and stare out over the fence line into the pasture. You see, deep down inside she was a heifer, and she knew it. No matter how much dog food she ate, she would always be who she was born to be. After a year, we decided that she had fertilized our yard enough, and we turned her loose into the pasture with the heifers. Actually, what we did was to open the gate and let her find her own way out. She refused to leave the comfort of her home for several days, but slowly she discovered who she was and joined the herd. Most likely you have heard such stories before, but have you ever considered how they might affect your life?

We are all born to be a specific person. There is a true meaning and purpose for each and every person alive today, including you. Some of us have found that purpose and are living that life allowed to us to the best of our abilities. Some of us know what purpose we should be living, but can’t find it within us to become that person. Some of us have confused identities that prevent us from discovering what our true purpose is. God did create each and every one of us for a specific reason. There were no mistakes or accidents when He created us. God will open His hand and hold it out to you. All you have to do it place your hand in His and walk with Him. Like Babe having to walk through that open gate, all of us have to choose to walk into our purpose.