Milking Time

I grew up on a small dairy farm.  I should be well over one hundred years old for the memories I have as a child.  We didn’t have electricity until I was 9 ½ years old and no indoor plumbing until after I went to college.  We did have indoor running water, and a water heater, but not an indoor bathroom.  See.  I should be 100 or more years old!

The first small appliance my parents bought was a toaster.  It was a pop-up toaster so we didn’t have burned toast very often.  We never had “store bought” bread so we had to learn how to slice the bread just the right width or it would not work in the toaster!  That aside, when we had electricity put in the house, Daddy also had a line run to the barn.  The first major appliance my parents purchased was a refrigerator and the second—an electric milking machine for the barn.

I loved that machine.  It also reduced my work load in the barn.  I didn’t have any brothers, so, yes, I worked barn chores just like the other boys in my neighborhood.  My job was to milk my own assigned cow.  Now with this wonderful four “hands” milking machine all I had to do was go behind the machine and strip out what the machine left behind. The stripping gave us a gallon or more milk each milking even after giving some of it to the barn cats.  Every drop counts when milk selling is your livelihood.

This morning I found myself doing that in my morning Bible reading.  After the repetitious reading of Numbers 7, I found a gem.  It was like stripping out the last of what the cow had to offer.  Verse 89, the last verse in the chapter tells that after all twelve family representatives of the Hebrews offered similar offerings on the now dedicated altar in the Tabernacle, Moses went into the special room set aside for the mercy seat, and “. . .heard the voice of one speaking to him from the Mercy Seat. . .”  When we linger where God speaks to us, we will hear God’s voice giving us direction and encouragement.

Strip out the gems from God’s Word.  Don’t rush.  Linger.  Let it soak in. It is often those last squirts of milk that add up over time.

• Posted in: Everyday Thinking
• Tagged: dairy farms, milking cows, Numbers 7:89