Are you feeling “weary” or “heavy loaded” with the cares of this world? Do things with your family, your job, yours or a family member’s health, and many other responsibilities seem to be overloading your “weary meter”?

Can you hear Jesus call to you as I hear Him call to me  “Come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden!!!”  What does He promise us???  “REST” – “I will give you rest.”  If we take His yoke upon us and learn of Him, He assures us that not only will He give us rest, but we shall find it,  we shall attain it,  and we shall walk in it in our daily lives. Because Jesus shares and carries all the load, His yoke is truly easy and His burdens light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

This week He has shown me another characteristic of “Yoke” from my childhood memories…..

Usually in early spring, some farmers would sell off young calves.  Daddy came home one day with two of them.  He gave my sister Sharon and I the responsibility of caring for them. To an eight and a ten year old, this was an exciting job to have. Of course, we had to give them good names. In school we were reading biographies on different characters in history. Since we had just read about two women, Abigail Van Buren and Amelia Earhart, naming them was an easy task.  They were named “Abigail” and “Amelia.”

We had a gallon bucket with a nipple on it that we would mix the powdered milk with water in. You can just imagine how glad they were to see us when we would bring it out to the barnyard to feed those babies.  They would just about yank that bucket out of our hands in their eagerness to nurse.

Have you ever watched a young calf play?  They are so full of energy;  they seem to live in a world all their own, running, jumping, and playing all over the place. Sometimes as you are watching them, you would laugh until your sides hurt.

But, we did have one serious problem with “Abigail and Amelia.” They could find a way to escape through any little opening in the fence.  They seemed to think that they could only have real fun when they were outside the fence.  Their antics would become more extreme – the jumping, prancing, and dancing more pronounced. And trying to catch them to return them to the fenced pasture was a real task.

To deal with this problem, my Daddy made a yoke out of a tree branch shaped like a “Y.” He placed it around their necks and tied the top with a rope to secure it.  The next time they attempted to go through any small fence opening, the yoke would block them from escaping.

Now, they were not at all happy about this. They thought that the yoke was a nuisance that was preventing them from having exciting adventures.  The young calves’ perception was so off kilter.  But, Daddy knew more than they did; he had put those fences around the pastures to provide them a place of safety.  He knew the young calves could still run as fast as they wanted to, jump as high as they could, prance and dance around with as much joy and enthusiasm as anyone could. And yet, they would be safe and protected from outside danger in that pasture.

This is how  “Jesus’ Yoke” is for us.  He not only gives us rest from the weariness of life but, as we follow His Holy Word and live inside its directions and guidance, we will have its fence as our protection and safety for our lives.  Danger and harm will be avoided; safety and secureness will belong to us. We can have a wonderful adventure filled life inside of God’s protective fence.  All kinds of amazing goodness will come to us, like moving the enemy out from you, giving you new lands to walk and serve Him in, and preserving us alive in our day (abundantly alive). (Deuteronomy 6:17-25)  

The “Y” yoke that Daddy used on Abigail and Amelia reminds me of two things:  “Yahweh,” our Great God, and “Yeshua,” our Messiah.  His wondrous presence is always here for us!!!

Yoked with Jesus,

Tricia Cook

P.S. (And “YES,” I have had to ask the Lord to forgive me for not coming to Him earlier in the week to His Rest and the safe protected Pasture of His Word.)

(Crowder – Come As You Are)