Moment by moment...

We had been gone from the farm for one night. It was a special memory trip for us... visiting Texas after a long absence. Our first church with Michael as associate pastor, our first child, our first home, our first new car... all happened in Waco, Texas. Those three years loomed large in our memory and had shaped our lives in ways we are still discovering. So, here we were, far, far away when we get the call. Annabelle is calving and it is a breech birth.
Birth at the farm, no matter how many times we observe it, is always a miracle in the making. Every calf that comes into our world at Sabbath Rest Farm is celebrated. Our cows and bull are long in the tooth but still procreating regularly and we are grateful. Annabelle is one of our younger cows but she was in trouble and so was her calf. She could not give birth without help. If she didn’t get help, she and the calf would both die. Gary came, and he and David pulled the calf. That is a powerful painful experience for cow, calf and helpers. The calf was limp and not breathing so Gary breathed life into him, mouth to mouth. Afterwards, all who had gathered to help, named the baby Gladd...Gary, Lisa, Annabelle, Dianne, David... all the helpers remembered in the little black baby boy’s name.
Erich Fromm says, “Birth is not one act; it is a process... To live is to be born every minute. Death occurs when birth stops.” The paradox of birth is that is it is both one act and a process. All life has a beginning, some more difficult than others. And all life is a process, a series of passages, a journey, a pilgrimage. Like Gladd, some of us are breech births and some of us slip easily into the new world, all of us life novices. As we are born into this world, so are we born into the world of faith. Jesus’ words, “You must be born again...” make perfect sense when you watch baby calves being born.
After a baby calf is born, the herd will allow the mother and calf some time alone to get acquainted. When the mother is ready, each member of the herd will pass by, gently nosing and smelling and licking a welcome to the new kid in the pasture. Our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts, uncles and cousins in the faith help birth us again into the kingdom of God.
They are the midwives for the first birth of faith and as we grow, help breathe new life into our souls as we make difficult transitions. We must be born again and again and again if we are to live in the moment we have been given. When we stop being born, we die to the gifts of the present and get trapped in despair, boredom, ingratitude or any one of the many deadly sins that lie in wait for those who live unaware of God’s presence in every moment of time.
Our hearts will break and our hearts will soar if we live in the moment. As one songwriter said, “My heart is shattered and held together with crazy glue.” Being present to the moment, aware of all we have been given, seeing all the awful imperfections balanced by all the awesome
beauty, will break your heart even as Jesus’ heart was broken. How many times did he stand and weep... over Lazerus, in the Garden, over Jerusalem, on the cross... his tears flowing from the knowledge that great love brings equal measures of joy and sorrow. But if we live life in the moment, nothing is wasted, neither tears nor laughter. All are a part of our new births bringing new life to what was dead and gone.
My prayer is found in the words of the old hymn...“Moment by moment I’m kept in his love; moment by moment I’ve life from above; looking to Jesus ‘til glory doth shine; moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.”