It wasn’t uncommon for strangers to pull into our driveway while I was growing up. If we were outside, the strangers rolled down their windows and stuck their heads out.

“Hey! Did you all know you got a cow out?”

I grew up on my Papaw’s farm where he had lots and lots of cows. To me, the cows were big, scary and stinky. When I got older, they were just stinky.

Bull Run Creek ran through his farm and Pedigo Road bisected it. Our church used to baptize there next to the bridge. Now, the bridge is known as the “Mary Lou Horner Memorial Bridge.”

As people held hands and walked into the water, the congregation sang, “Shall We Gather at the River.” I would tell my mom, “It’s a creek. Not a river.” She responded with, “Just go with it.”

A few days before hand, my papaw moved the cows to his fields on other side of the road. That way there wouldn’t be anything “fresh” on the baptizing side. Old stuff wasn’t anywhere near as dangerous. The day of, he opened up a place in the fence so people could pull in and park their cars close to the creek.

My Papaw felt honored to be able to do that for his church. He welcomed other churches in the area to baptize there as well. All he requested was for them to give him a few days’ notice so he could move the cows.

But there were some churches that waited to notify him the night before or the morning of a baptizing. Papaw told them that didn’t give him time to move his cows. Sometimes they answered, “It is alright brother Eldred. It’s all God’s creation.”

When that happened, I would go into my great grandmother’s bedroom, which was at the back of their farmhouse. Their house was on a hill and her window looked down to the creek.

From that vantage point, I watched the baptizing service. I saw people hopping around or jumping up with their hands in the air. I knew they weren’t praising the Lord because they ran out into the field and scraped their shoes off in the grass.

They said it themselves: “It’s all God’s creation.”

For the record, I totally believe in enjoying His marvelous creation, but if you want to walk through a cow field, may I suggest some tall boots.

Job 12:7-10 King James Version (KJV)
“But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.”