A funny thing happened recently that reminded me so much of our walk with God.
It was a lovely spring day. My husband and I both had the day off and decided to enjoy the spring sunshine and go out into nature.
We live on the outskirts of a small village, and therefore we can walk from home into the polder, into nature. The polder is low-lying land that has been reclaimed and is protected by dikes. The nature is beautiful there, and besides a lot of beautiful flora, there are also a lot of faunas to discover: geese and swans flying over, wild horses and cows grazing in herds, and rabbits crossing our path.
While we were enjoying ourselves together, we saw the herd of wild horses in the distance; one of them already had a foal, and we enjoyed the sight. Suddenly we saw a small calf standing in the middle of the herd. 
At first, we looked at it with tenderness; I fell in love immediately, but when we looked closer, we didn’t see the mother cow anywhere.
At first, we looked at it with tenderness; I fell in love immediately, but when we looked closer, we didn’t see the mother cow anywhere.We decided to carefully walk towards the herd and take a closer look to see if we could see mom somewhere. Although the cows and horses are shy, they are close enough to approach or pass by, and they are also used to people.
We came closer and saw that the mother cow was nowhere to be seen, and I especially started to worry. The calf was walking back and forth, clearly looking for his mother. He was standing in the middle of the herd of horses that tolerated his presence, but he should not come any closer because when he tried to do so with one of the horses, he got a kick in his direction, and frightened, he took his distance again.
We stood there for a while, and my husband frantically searched on his phone for a number for Staats Bosbeheer or Natuur Monumenten so that we could maybe call someone and get help for our lost friend.
Staats Bosbeheer is an organization here in the Netherlands that manages and protects the green heritage. About 270,000 hectares of nature fall under the protection of Staats Bosbeheer. Natuurmonumenten is also an organization that protects and manages our Dutch nature and landscapes. We tried to get in touch with one of the two, but unfortunately without success…
Please God!
While my husband was doing this, I prayed to God, “Lord, please! Will you bring the calf back to its mother?” I prayed several times. Finally, I added, “…or bring its mother here”…
Yet, we decided to take matters into our own hands; we were under the impression that we had seen the herd of cows earlier on our walk, now quite a distance back on the route. We decided to gently nudge our little new friend in that direction by walking behind him.
No sooner said than done. As he ran ahead of us, we walked behind him to the spot from where we had seen the herd standing.
We had already walked quite a distance when we heard a lowing sound in the distance, from the direction we came from, near the herd of horses. We stopped for a moment to take in the sound, and yes, we really heard it well… it was mama cow!
Our new friend had apparently heard it too and immediately turned around and ran back to where we came from! We quickly followed her, and out of nowhere, a big mama cow came running. The sight was endearing. Mama and baby ran towards each other, and the little one started drinking right after that. We were amazed… how was this possible?
We stood there for so long, searching and looking, but Mama was nowhere to be seen. And now suddenly she was there?!
A Missed Opportunity
Suddenly it reminded me of my question to God before we tried to lead the little one, “…or bring mommy here…”
How many times do we pray for something, and before God can do anything, we take matters into our own hands? Do we make the decision ourselves and not wait on God? We ask Him for guidance, for insight, but before He can do anything, His “opportunity” is already gone, LOL.
We have no patience, think we know better, or even think that God does not want to answer our prayers. While, the Word teaches us that God wants to give us the desires of our heart when it is in line with His Word (Psalm 37:4).
“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” – Psalm 37:4
He is a good Father and hears and answers every single one of our prayers (John 15:7, 1 John 3:22, 1 John 5:14-15). What is important to us is important to Him. Whether it be the big things or the small things, He wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives. However, getting ahead of Him doesn’t really help the situation, LOL.
“And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” – Matthew 21:22
When we pray, we must believe and trust that God will do it.
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” - Mark 11:24
Almost an orphan
This adventure with mama cow and our new friend, the baby calf, reminded me of that, and it was such a beautiful image of the fact that God had already answered my prayer; mama was already on her way! But we were impatient and intervened ourselves and sent our new furry friend, completely on our own insight, in the wrong direction, LOL.
Because of us, our little buddy was almost orphaned, #sad.
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” - 1 John 5:14-15
I want to encourage you with this; whatever it is that you have prayed to God for, know that He hears (Proverbs 15:29, Isaiah 65:24, Matthew 7:7, John 16:24) and will answer.
Wait, persevere, keep seeking God, keep believing and keep trusting.
