"Brazos Bull"

Down there on the Brazos,

It’s cattle country strong,

The minute that I got there,

I knew that I belong.

To that old river country,

And the bottoms of the bend,

Where they pasture lots of cattle,

From now to way back when.

They said that bull was missing,

So I was sent to find,

There along the Brazos,

He was surely the right kind.

Big and black and rangy,

And married to the cow,

For awhile no one had seen him,

He’d gotten lost somehow.

I rode along the river,

Searching for some sign,

Came up on some bull tracks,

And followed him just fine.

That was when I realized,

That bull had gone across,

The old boy swam the river,

It’s the reason he was lost.

Way out across the river,

Past the brush and green mesquite,

Was a fellow’s winter pasture,

Planted here to there with wheat.

And there with all the heifers,

Stood our wanderin’ old bull,

He was happy as a tourist,

And had his belly full.

I cut him from the heifers,

He didn’t want to leave,

But Dan and me, we did our job,

And quickly I believe,

That old bull was ready,

To find his way back home,

We drove him to the river,

And crossed the wavy foam.

And now we hold him closer,

And keep an eye on him,

‘Cause now we know that Brazos bull,

Won’t just breed, he’ll swim!

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and the door will be opened to you…” (Matthew 7:7, NIV)

Jesus spoke of proactively asking, seeking and knocking. This doesn’t mean we get everything we ask for or seek after. In fact, sometimes the answer is no or not now. But what Jesus was teaching us is that we are not called to passivity. We pray until the answer is obvious, even when it’s not the answer we hoped for. We seek, and trust that God will supply the need as He sees fit, and according to His timing. We knock until the right door opens, but we keep on knocking until it does. This is what faith in action looks like. We have a part to play, even when we are waiting on the Lord.

Lord, help us to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Tyler Crow, tylercrow.com. Used by permission. Thanks, Tyler, and God bless you.