Out Our Way: Calving season - Isaiah 30:20-21

Out our way, the skies are dark and the snow is deep. The Alberta Clippers come screaming across the Milk River and with the wind chill, 30 degree below zero is not unusual. As many of you know, Montana winters account for many of the "For Sale" signs that pop up in the more touristy region where wealthy Californians and Texans are sure they discovered Paradise last winter. Beautiful scenery coupled with, what seems to them, extremely low housing costs, entice them to sell their modest homes back there and use the funds to buy sumptuous residences here - often with money left over. Then comes their first Montana winter and, with the spring thaw, like prairie flowers, the "For Sale" signs pop up in the richer parts of the state. Not everyone is cut out to be a Montanan. But Montanans are willing to endure the "Clippers" and arctic conditions because they know that our often harsh winters are just the price one pays for the magnificent spring, summer and fall that is also part of Montana.

February is often the coldest month of the year, but out our way, it is also a time of promise, for it is calving season. I have yet to meet the rancher who delights in being out in the winter landscape at 3 a.m. pulling calves in a blizzard.

Thank God for good heaters in our Ford, Dodge and Chevy trucks! In the old days, the hands had to ride out on horseback to check the herds, help deliver calves, and sometimes haul nearly frozen newborns back to the barn and try to keep them from freezing.

Yet, even so, it is a time of anticipation, hope, and often delight, for every newborn calf points to a growing herd and a prosperous round up down the road.

I have sat around the table over coffee and heard some of the old-timers talk about calving season with both a shudder and a smile. "We only lost two calves last year," says old Hank, "and I got some fine heifers for breeding as well as some likely steers for market down the road." George nods in agreement and boasts of how his herd has grown over the past few years and that he expects this February to be even better than last year. It may be a cold, dark and miserable time of year, but calving season is a season of hope nonetheless.

In the same way, though we all go through dark times, we come to believe it is our own "calving season." In the midst of our trials and tribulations, by faith we accept the testimony of the "old timers" we read in Scripture and whom we have known in our own lives, that this too shall pass and these times of trial will one day bear fruit of blessing. It will indeed have been our "calving season." 

Now just as the greenhorns from out of state who don't realize February is just a prelude to May and only see winter and despair, we sometimes forget God's promises and let the "Alberta Clippers" of sufferings and sorrows become the whole story. But just as Montanans see February as calving season and so endure the dark times with hope and anticipation because they know the bigger picture, so there are those in Scripture and in our daily lives who have endured many a winter and testify to it also being calving season. February will be replaced by May - frail, fragile newborn calves will become sturdy heifers and steers and the herd will prosper. 

This is the testimony of both the Scriptures and history - there will be dark winters from which none of us are immune and which we all must endure from time to time. There will be days and weeks when life seems bleak, empty, and even pointless. But if that describes you this day, remember this ... it is also "calving season."

Be blessed and be a blessing!

Brother John

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The Rev. John Bruington is the retired pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Havre. He now lives in Colorado, but continues to write "Out Our Way." He can be reached for comment or dialogue at [email protected].