Here's To You

Animal Planet has nothing on the episodes I watch daily right outside my back fence. So far this morning I’ve binge watched Sneaky Sheep, Chicken Chatter, and Three More Little Piggies, the Sequel. I’m learning a lot from these episodes.

• ·         Piglets running across an open pasture are the cutest things I’ve ever seen.
• ·         If Bert jumped off the roof, Ernie would,too.
• ·         When the dinner bell rings, manners fly out the window. 
• ·         Now I know why Jesus compared people to sheep.

Every time I watch this channel, I am astonished by the way farm creatures treat each other. Take Sara and Esther, for example. I couldn’t keep them straight or even remember their names until this morning when Jules came out to the gate with breakfast for everyone and pointed out the differences between the two. Sara is lean and mean. She and her sister are both breeds without any sheepy fluff. They always look like they’ve recently been sheared, though Esther’s back is covered with a shallow layer of fleece, presumably to protect her fair skin. I think that’s why Sara is so grumpy—too many sunburns.

Once Jules pointed out the differences between the girls, it all made sense. Sara and Esther are Bible names given appropriately to the two sheepish sisters. For example, as soon as Jules sent a scoop full of alfalfa chunks sailing into the air over the double gate, mayhem exploded among the inhabitants on the other side like a Black Friday sale at the mall. It was everyone for themselves, especially Sara, the bossy one, behaving just like Abraham's wife. 

I’m telling you, she was out of control. Acting like she hadn’t eaten in a month, she butted into the front of the line, sending chickens flying and scrambling the little piglets. They weren’t any threat to her hungry belly. The poor little kids don’t even know how to chew alfalfa yet. Jules chided Sara's bad behavior, but after watching for a minute, she told her little flock, “I’ll be right back,” and headed off to do some other nice deed for them. Esther stood back from the free-for-all and waited patiently, looking like the exiled queen she's named for. But Sara? She pushed her nosy nose up to the gate and bellowed after Jules. Now, I don’t speak sheep, and I’ve noticed that Sara’s tone of voice is always one note, but if you ask me, she was pretty snippy there for a minute.

Self-centered. Animals only share as long as their mouths are full.

You know what else I was thinking about? Farm animals don’t have jobs. They don’t clean up after themselves. They don’t plant anything on purpose. If seeded food scraps make it through their digestive systems, you might find a volunteer tomato plant sprouting in the middle of the pasture, but believe me, all the credit goes to the tomato. After a journey like that, they deserve applause just for surviving.

The only job these critters have is one of my personal favorites. Eating. And they’re good at it. Their sole purpose is to eat and grow. That’s it. And sleep in between. I’ve been sitting here for over an hour watching the show and if they’re not sleeping, this cast of characters is eating. Grazing on grass, pecking at bugs, slurping from the watering trough, jumping up to grab leaves from low hanging branches, nursing on their mama. All they do is eat. It’s all they know how to do besides fight each other in order to eat more. And after all the energy they expend finding bugs or just the right blade of grass, they lie down to rest and digest. When they get up, the whole cycle begins again.

They’re not worried about the stock market. They don’t care who’s running the country. They never get annoyed by other drivers. They don't give a thought to what anyone thinks of them. They can’t even read. They never miss out on sleep. They’re not consumed by guilt. Spiritual questions don’t steal their joy. They feel safe in the pasture provided for them and live a life of contentment being themselves.

And eating.

Eating grass is their one and only job, which keeps the pasture looking mowed which saves the family from having to bring in a tractor which saves on gas and oil and sweat. That’s pretty much all they’re contributing to the economy here at the Brady farm. The only thing that will end up on our breakfast plates are donated eggs. No one is going to become a sausage link or a leg of lamb around here. These are beloved pets, at least to Jules, and as long as they do the one thing that comes naturally to them, they can live here without expectations or fear of failure.

So, this morning, as the credits roll on this adventure series and the chickens cozy up to the fence to see if I’m hiding any pellets in my pockets, I lean back in my chair and consider what I’ve learned by watching this scriptless documentary.

• ·         I make my life a lot harder than it should be.
• ·         I am sometimes my own worst enemy. I don’t even need another sheep to headbutt me—I can do it to myself.
• ·         It’s a waste of energy to wonder if people watch my every move or criticize how I live life.
• ·         I don’t have to work at anything to deserve the good things God gives me.
• ·         I only need to be the Eula that He created me to be. Not anyone else’s version, including my own.
• ·         If I eat and digest and absorb the good stuff, I might accidently leave something good behind.
• ·         All I really need to do is eat.

 

Time for a donut.