A Job To Do

The day had warmed considerably since the early morning temperature in the upper fifties. The sorting of cattle had almost been completed. The five of us had spent the last four and a half hours scouring a grazing allotment in Macon Flats near Fairfield, Idaho, a small western town at the foot of some beautiful mountains of green sage, and rows of pine, aspen, and the bare rock sticking out above the timberline just at the very peak. The Macon Flats were described to me the night before as ugly, rocky country. What I saw when we arrived was another example of the vastness of this country. A place where it seems you can see forever. It was rocky but though it wasn't picturesque, it wasn't exactly ugly either. It had sage covered rolling hills, lava rock outcroppings both large and small. It had a small, canyon like chasm running in a serpentine manner across the entire property from east to west, where a beautiful, green creek runs with fresh, clear water, with willow trees lining its banks.

I had spent some time earlier in the week riding in the mountains with a good friend from southern Idaho and we were now enlisted by another rancher to help he and the others with cattle grazing on Macon Flats, gather, sort each ones cattle from the others, and clear them off the allotment. Leased government lands are broken up into allotments which means each rancher is aloud a certain number of cow/calf units to graze on an area for a certain amount of time. In this case, the cattle had to be moved off spring range and moved somewhere else to summer range.

The ride was a series of circles, first headed east and picking up a few cows, then heading them west towards the corals where they would be sorted. As I pushed a small group of three cows and calves off the sage and lava rock covered pastures down a steep ledge to the winding creek below, I stopped at the crest to watch the cattle drink. A small red fox lunges down the embankment on the other side and scampers among the cattle. I'm not sure what his reasons would be for going after creatures that are so much larger than he is, but he continues toward the small herd as if on the attack. His bravery, or stupidity, is short lived and a cooler head prevails as one of the protective bovine mommies jumped at the fox and snorted, chasing him off to pick on someone, or something, his own size. My rancher friend catches up and we traverse the slope on our strong and athletic cow horses to push the cattle up the other side and on west to the waiting corrals. Back and forth, back and forth we went over the huge pasture again and again slowly picking up more and more cows and their young calves. In the distance we can hear the cattle being gathered by the two young cowboys from one of the other outfits moving slowly towards the corrals bawling their discontent. We will keep moving those we find in their direction until they all bunch together. Eventually we arrive with some forty to fifty head at the corrals. Though it is not the total amount we are searching for, there are several more days of the same to comb the large allotment to finally clear it of all cattle. First we get all of one ranch's cattle out and sorted into a separate pen, then another's, then another's. Going by brands and colored ear tags, the job seems to be going well. All at once, an over zealous cowboy pushes a couple of calves a little too hard, causing them to panic and blast through the fence between loose strands of wire. Off they go in rebellion, right back where they came from. Quickly, the gate is opened and out the cowboys go to retrieve the fugitives. I am at the gate of the holding pen at the other end of the large corrals watching in frustration. After chasing them back several times without success at getting them back in the gate, one of the cowboys who was the culprit of this ordeal in the first place takes down his rope. My quiet friend, tired of the situation, not looking for a roping demonstration and not one to give unsolicited advice, takes matters into his own hands. He pushes several cows right out the gate. I know, your thinking he's crazy. Why would you let even more cattle escape, especially after it was so hard to gather such a few in such a rough and vast piece of country? If you were there you would see for yourself almost immediately. The small bunch slowly leaves and stands grazing just outside the corrals a short distance away. Then the calves see them and run to join them. The cows and calves are easily pushed right back through the gate and sorted, counted, and loaded in the trailers to be taken to new grazing somewhere else. What could have been a disaster, was quickly handled.

We could have sat there all day with the gate open and those calves would never have returned. But when we sent others out to them and they joined up together they came right back into the fold. The babies couldn't make a clear decision on their own but with help from the more mature cows, even though they weren't those particular calves' mothers, they were easily caught up again.

Matthew 28:18-20 says, "And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'" (Matthew 28:18-20 NASB)

He didn't say, "Sit there and if you are really patient they will come to you and you can tell them about me." He said, "Go!" We who know Jesus as our Lord and Savior must GO. The answer for the situation in the sorting pens was the other cows who lead the runaways back to where they belonged. There are those who, in rebellion or ignorance, are running from God. We have the answer for that situation as well. The answer is Jesus. We have to go out where those who are running from or do not know about Jesus are and tell them about Him, leading them to Him. It may not be an easy job. It may not always go exactly the way we would plan, but it is the job God calls us to do. Go and make disciples; Disciples of Jesus Christ.

GO!