I love cows. They are usually gentle creatures with personality. Frankly – and maybe a bit oddly – I also like the smell of them.
Where I live, cows are kept in large barns during the cold and rainy season of the year. Barns are mighty fine places for cows to stay for a few months in the winter. Everything they need to survive can be found in the farmer’s barn: food, water, shelter, warmth, and companionship, but cows somehow know that they weren’t made for living in a barn.
Soon Spring arrives. The grass turns green and flowers welcome the change by spreading their colorful petals in the warmth of the sun. Spring is a celebration of new life in nature all around us, and the cows are let out of the barns into the pasture.
Have you ever seen a cow let out of the barn after winter passes? You should watch this short video clip to see the reaction of cows let out to pasture after a season of confinement in the barn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onWzeDElz6w. Cows will run, jump, leap, and play!
There’s an interesting phrase in the last book of the Old Testament: Malachi 4:2. But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture (NLT).
For a time, God’s people are confined to this world and bodies that are well suited to our needs. However, the barns of our bodies become dirty, broken, and troubled in many ways. We know, deep within our spirits, that this world isn’t truly our home and we long to be free and in the presence of God in Heavenly Places. The day comes for each of us, when after the long, cold winter of life, trapped inside a comfy but difficult world, the Master stands at the barn door and welcomes us into the green pasture of His presence. The Sun of Righteousness rises in the sky with healing in His wings, and we go free, leaping and frolicking with joy like calves led from the stall.
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:2-3). Heaven is your pasture dear saint.
Where Living Begins 