November 1, 2007

RH2

Earlier this week I loaded up two steers and drove them off of Siete Ranch to be weaned. I had to leave the mother cows, RH2 and M6, locked in the working pens as I drove off to keep them from following me down the road, out the gate, and out on to the highway. RH2, especially, has a very maternal nature, and she would have followed the truck and trailer for as many miles as her legs would take her.

I have done this on many occasions and I never fail to be struck by the powerful maternal instinct that is found in so many creatures. And I can't help but speculate on what it says to us about the creation. There is a growing atheist movement in this country that would like to convince us that we are no more than the composite of certain molecular processes that have grown more complex through the ages. We are told that life blossomed not because of a Creator, but out of sheer chance, and that it has simply evolved because of the instinct for survival. But all you have to do is separate a mama cow from her baby and you know that there is more to it than that.

As far as I'm concerned the Bible gives us an explanation that comes much closer to the reality that we observe. The Bible tells us that there was a Creator that breathed life into the world. Whether that took seven days or many centuries is beside the point. It helps to elucidate something that we all know: we have feelings such as compassion and love that cannot be traced to molecular structure. We have the capacity for sacrifice and heroism that cannot be explained by natural selection. We have yearnings and ideals, we dream dreams and hear songs and write poetry, not because of some biological imperative but because there is something about our nature which can only be described as spiritual, something which was bestowed upon us by the Creator.

There is no doubt that we live in a "fallen" world. All you have to do is turn on the news to learn of the many ways in which we turn the created order back into chaos. But RH2 reminds us that our true nature is to protect the young, to care for one another, to manifest in our words and actions the love of the One who created us.