Not One of Our Own

Living and working in the hill country of Texas is, in a word, wonderful! The beauty surrounding us every day is amazing. It's peaceful, calming, satsifying. We feel incredibly blessed.

Every morning on our way to work, and every afternoon on our way home, we pass a field of grazing goats. Usually they're quite a distance from the road so we've never paid too much attention to them. After all, herds of goats and cows are plentiful here in Texas. But one day last week the group was a bit closer to the road, and I noticed something unusual as we drove past. One of the goats was smaller, skinnier, and browner than the rest. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a deer. The next day it was still there, grazing with the goats. And the next day. And the next. Hubby and I decided it must be an orphan, probably left all alone when its mother was hit by a car or met some other misfortune. We wondered if the owners of the goats found it and put it with the herd, or if it found its way there on its own. Either way, this group of goats had fully accepted the presence of an outsider, not one of their own. He doesn't look like them. He doesn't have the same goat-like personality. He is...different.

 

Those goats can teach us a lesson, I think. When people who are different come into our lives -- whatever that difference may be -- we need to welcome them with open arms. Love on them, open our homes and our hearts to them. Be a little goat-ish when a deer wanders in. You never know what that deer has been through. He may be all alone in the world, or feel like it anyway. You may be the family -- or friend -- he needs right then.

I hope our little deer eventually finds a group of his own kind to hang with someday. You know, so he can get married and have kids. But for now, God blessed him with a family of goats.

Makes you all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn't it?

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