"Old Blue"

I heard and then I saw him,

A big old mossy horn,

No telling just how old he was,

Or when that steer was born.

Almost a ton of legend,

With the cow folk that I knew,

Speckled black and steel-dust gray,

They nicknamed him “Old Blue.”

You might go a year or more,

And then some hand would say,

I caught a glimpse of that old steer,

Just the other day.

But no one could ride near him,

He’d vanish like a ghost,

Some thought the wolves had got him,

Then he’d turn up farthermost,

From where someone last saw him,

A rangin’ son of a gun,

And maybe that’s how he escaped,

He’s always on the run.

But I watched him from the quakies,

He was grazin’ down below,

The wind blew my direction,

And so he couldn’t know,

That a horse as fast as ever,

And a cowboy with a rope,

Might end that old steer’s legend,

And dally up his hope.

Thundered down the mountain,

And looped his head real neat,

One horn was long broken,

The surprise was hard to beat.

And circled an old deadfall,

And tied him just like that,

Then noticed he was chokin’ down,

As on the ground he sat.

The legend was a-dyin’,

I never did think twice,

But flashed my blade and cut him loose,

He trotted off real nice.

But just before he disappeared,

He stopped and looked my way,

Almost like a thank you,

That’s all that I will say.

I didn’t tell nobody,

Thought they would not believe,

And I don’t have a thing to prove,

‘Bout a secret up my sleeve.

But if you wonder why I did it,

I will tell you plain,

When I was caught and ‘bout choked down,

I called on Jesus’ name.

He cut the cords that bound me,

And set my spirit free,

To tell the truth that old blue steer,

Reminded me of me.

They sometimes say they see him,

And who am I to doubt,

But me and Blue we feel the same,

We know what free’s about.

“For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom…” (2 Corinthians 3:17, NLT)

Jesus promised freedom to His followers. The truth would free us, He said, and He claimed to be the truth. He said that the freedom He offered was extraordinary, that through Him, we would be free indeed. Paul echoed this claim by explaining that it is the Spirit’s work to set us free. The freedom, however, is not to do anything we like. It’s infinitely better and more powerful than that. The freedom is to actually become more and more like Jesus. That’s the freedom that changes the world because it changes us.

Lord, free us to become like You, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Clark Kelley Price, used by permission. Thanks, and God bless.