Blossom the Goat

When Blossom was born she cried more loudly than any of the other newborn kids.  We nicknamed her and her twin brother "the foghorns."  As she aged, though, she became docile and quiet-tempered, and soon she stopped bleating altogether.  It's been many years since I've heard her make a sound louder than the gentle grunt she uses to soothe her own babies.  

Blossom liked to follow me around the pasture when I was mending fences or doing other chores.  I remember many times when she left the other goats far behind in the distance in order to stay near me.  I always rewarded her loyalty with something good to eat, and so Blossom had come to associate me with good things.

One day I brought a bowl of scraps from the kitchen to the pasture.  The excited goats bleated and knocked heads over the cucumber peelings and melon rinds, but Blossom stayed near me and looked up expectantly, as though she was waiting for something better.  I took a whole orange out of my pocket and offered it to her.  Another goat barged between us, thinking that Blossom must be getting something worth having.  Once this goat smelled the bitter peel, though, she snorted and returned to the kitchen scraps.  This food was too strange and suspicious to draw her away from a feast of familiar scraps.  

Blossom had been trained to assume that only good things come from me, and so she took the orange with only a slight hesitation.  Of course, once she got past the peel, she had a better treat than any of the other goats.

I want to love my Shepherd the way Blossom loved me.  As I walk with Him, I want to know His heart and desire His presence, counting everything as loss compared to the excellency of knowing Him.  When He offers me food I don't recognize, I will eat it because I know He is good.  When He leads me by a path I don't understand, I will follow Him because I know He is good.  Let me never be content with table scraps when He is offering me the best of Himself.  

Draw us after You, Lord.  Draw Your Bride away from the rotten scraps of spirituality, and in to Your very self.  Help us take from Your hand what is best, even when it is strange to us.  Teach us to abide in You alone, and to forsake the pretenses of man's flimsy kingdom.  Give Your Bride a heart that will inquire of You to learn what is good, and will love what You say is good because she loves You first.