During my devotional time this morning, the song, “But for You Who Fear My Name” by The Welcome Wagon came on. I’d encourage you to listen to it, but if you don’t have the time, here are the lyrics.
But for you who fear my name,
the sun of righteousness will rise
with healing in his wings.
And you shall go forth again,
skip about like calves
coming from their stalls at last.
You shall be my very own
on the day that I
cause you to be my special home.
I shall spare you as a man,
as compassion on his son
who does the best he can.
But for you who fear my name,
the sun of righteousness will rise
with healing in his wings.
And you shall go forth again,
skip about like calves
coming from their stalls at last.
You shall be my very own
on the day that I
cause you to be my special home.
I shall spare you as a man,
as compassion on his son
who does the best he can.
But for you who fear my name,
the sun of righteousness will rise
with healing in his wings.
And you shall go forth again,
skip about like calves
coming from their stalls at last.
The line that strikes me every single time I listen to this song is “Skip about like calves, coming from their stalls at last.” It’s such a cheerful image to imagine: these little creatures squealing with excitement over their freedom. I think this can be a bit of a metaphor. Let’s consider the barn that has all of the stalls. Maybe there are dozens of calves, maybe only 10, but one thing is for sure, they have pent up energy, are fighting to get free, and when they do get free, the joy, peace, and celebration that comes from freedom is squeal-inducing. These calves have heard glimpses of what some have interpreted as terrified squeals, but they know in their hearts that those squeals are really those of freedom. This can symbolize our infant stages of being Christians, when the Holy Spirit is working on our hearts, calling us forth to Jesus, encouraging us to fight the worldly boundaries that have been set for us. That first hour of salvation brings such gleeful freedom that we can’t contain ourselves, we have to skip, to squeal, and let the world know of our glorious freedom. When we get to the point of fighting to get out of our stalls, we have the knowledge that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior so we know that what we are running to is not death but rather freedom.
***Side note, there are cows all over the place around here because we are out in the country. I’m guessing this helped contribute to how much I connected to the calf theme that inspired this blog***
On the flip side, there are some calves that don’t fight to gain freedom because they believe a lie. The lie is that while the calves who get out have a fleeting taste of freedom, what they are really released to do is walk to the slaughter house. That’s the rumor among the still calves, the ones who are not yet fighting. They believe that should you break free, you’ll never come back because you will run straight to your immediate death. These calves think that the squeals of freedom are actually squeals of terror rather than delight and so they pass this rumor and lie among themselves. Similarly, the devil whispers lies to those who have not found the love in Christ such as “Why believe that? That freedom is too good to be true, it really leads to death,” or “What’s the point in fighting? You’ll never break free,” or “Why try and get out, this stall, while it is a bit cramped, isn’t so bad because I have food and a space. I don’t need anything better.” The lies are constant but effective because they keep people from fighting and believing in their freedom.
If you are someone who has believed the lies, I’d encouraged you to take some time to dig deep into what is truth and what sounds like truth but is actually false. Making the decision to break out of your stall, by accepting Jesus, will be, without question, the best decision you’ve ever made and consequently, will be the best gift you’ve ever received.
“Skip about like calves, coming from their stalls at last”
Food for thought that I’ve been chewing on since my quiet time. In the words of my dad and bother, I hope it was utterly mooooooving. 🙂 Happy Tuesday.
