These Little Pigs Will Go To Market

On the weekend we visited good friends near Sharbot Lake, Ontario. Their farm is a lovely refuge, a combination of fields and forest and water. It is a working farm, so we are always interested to find out what and who is new in the barn.

This time around there were lambs, including a couple that need to be bottle-fed. The four young pigs were terrified of unfamiliar humans but eventually posed for a photo. The calf was born only hours before we arrived. We walked back in the pasture and found the mom, named Emma, who also gave birth to a calf from two years ago named Ugly Gus. I'm reluctant to mention that a portion of Gus is now in our freezer. Emma was out in the sun with the other cows, but had tucked the yet unnamed calf in the long grass beneath a tree. She didn't move until her mother anxiously checked out what we were doing to her baby. Bye the way, this little girl will have a name beginning with "I," so feel free to make suggestions.

We also had a reminder of new life in the wild world. We went out on the river in our kayaks and Ruth noticed a deer standing by the shore. I moved closer, and closer, and closer still, wondering why the deer didn't dart away. Then I saw why. A wobbly-legged fawn was beside her, barely able to stand.

These newborn creatures create in me a sense of delight and wonder, which directs me toward the Creator. I'm sure no seven-day literalist and I made my peace with evolution years ago. I am also aware that our friends are not raising animals as pets and that the fawn may one day be taken down by a hunter's bullet. But an hours-old human baby, or calf, or fawn speak to me of the intricacy of life that finds its way back to God.