Eventually, Teeny grew into a large cow, but she was still called Teeny. Ted continued to give his big pet lots of love and attention. He could still hug her around the neck, but he could no longer pick her up or hold her in his lap.
Then one day when Teeny was about two years old, she had a little calf of her own. What a cute little calf he was, so lively and frisky. Ted was so happy with the new calf. He spent lots of time thinking about a good name
for him.
Teeny’s calf was lively all right — too lively. Before he even had a name, he somehow squeezed under a fence and ran out onto the road and was hit by a passing truck. Of course, Ted was very sorry about the calf dying. And so was Teeny. She bawled for her calf for several days.
So, Ted and his dad decided to go to a cattle sale barn not far from them. There they found a day-old calf that was for sale. It was black and white like Teeny’s own calf that had been killed. They bought it to give to Teeny.
Teeny looked it over and took one sniff. Would she accept this new calf who needed a mother? No. She knew it wasn’t her own little calf. She chased it away and kept on bawling and mooing as loudly as ever.
Then Ted’s dad had an idea. They had saved the hide of Teeny’s calf that had been killed. Dad punched holes in the edges of the hide and wrapped it around the new little calf, tying it securely with a rope that had been strung through the holes in the hide. Then he brought the calf back to Teeny. This changed things right away. Teeny sniffed the calf over a few times and then began licking it. The little calf was accepted.
In a way, we are all like that little calf. Although God loves us so much, He cannot accept us as one of His children until our sins are covered over, as the skin of the dead calf covered the living one. But God has provided the covering for our sins through the death and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have believed on the Lord Jesus as your own Savior, you are now “accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:66To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)). That means you are accepted just as much as the Lord Jesus Christ! You never need to worry that you aren’t good enough. To God, you are seen as just as good as the Lord Jesus. We have so much to learn and to grow in, that very often we may act nothing like the Lord Jesus. But that’s not how God sees us. What a wonderful, loving Father He is to us!
Messages of God’s Love 7/31/2022