For those who don’t know — we live on a farm.  We have cattle that we sell for beef.

Another important fact: We live within 7 miles of two Hindu temples.  (Do you see where this is going?)

We have a lot of Hindu neighbors and have really had some strange requests over the years.  

I have shared before how I had one lady who had some type of little sacrifice wrapped up in tin foil.  She had just returned from a pilgrimage to India and couldn’t eat again until she fed this stuff to a cow.  I told her no (because I don’t want any other “god” worshiped on my property).  She looked so offended that I wouldn’t let her feed it to our cows.  Why would you agree not to eat again until you fed some concoction to a cow IF you don’t OWN ONE?!?!?  I can only assume that she came back in the dark of night to feed a cow.  I hope not, but what was she thinking? 

I have had pregnant Hindu ladies stop and want milk from a Mama cow who just gave birth.  Uh … these are beef cows.  We don’t milk them.  They would probably kick us into tomorrow!

Then of course we have always had the request for cow manure … that is yearly.

There was a brief season last year where they bothered us about getting cow urine!  Ok, that just crosses the line.  We are NOT going to have people running with cups/buckets behind our cows.  And again — these are beef cows.  They don’t usually have a lot of hands on them.  Uh, NO.

So here is what happened last night.  I had just gotten our daughter to bed and ASLEEP when my husband said, “Someone is coming to the door.”  He darted to the room to grab a shirt since he was already prepared for bed.  I went to the door and I see an Indian man running back to his car yelling something in another language.  I thought, “Good, he is leaving …” but alas, he ran back towards me.  

Here was his question.  Are you ready for this one?

“DO YOU RENT OUT YOUR COWS?” asked the excited man.

“What?” my husband and I said to him.  (Surely we misunderstood him.)

“DO YOU RENT OUT YOUR COWS?  I ONLY NEED ONE FOR AN HOUR …” he said — hoping the “one hour” would sway our decision.  Our minds raced with what he could possibly want with a cow for an hour.  ???

“Uh, no.  We don’t rent out our cows” we said as we looked back and forth at one another.  My husband said, “Are you Hindu?”  “Yes” the man said.  “Then would you please have this put in your bulletin at the temple that we DON’T rent our cows so others won’t come ask us too?”  


All of this was comical to us because we are continually amazed that the strange requests, but then … it got serious.


My husband asked, “Why do you want a cow for an hour?”  The man told us that they needed it for a new home — to walk it around their home as a blessing.  “We worship cows” he said.  


THOSE WORDS STRUCK ME.  I have always known that cows were sacred to Hindu people, but to have someone look me in the eye and say that they worship a cow just took me off guard.


I wanted to grab the man and say, “Jesus died for you.  You were made in the image of God — not of a cow.”  So many things raced through my mind but he was gone in a flash.


As we were shutting the door I told my husband, “God has allowed these people to continually come to our door.  We must be prepared!  We must be prepared!  They don’t know Jesus.”  


All I could think of was the image of all of the Israelites worshiping the golden calf when Moses returned from spending time with God on the mountain.

Exodus 32:1-6

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”  So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.  And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. 

Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
 

So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.”  Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

Proverbs 15:23

A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, And a word spoken in due season, how good it is!

Jesus died for these beautiful people from India.  Would you please pray for them today?