One afternoon, on the way to Grandmas house for after school snacks and tea. We drove past the Catholic Church in town. This is a church that we have driven by thousands of times over the years but have very seldom entered. On the side of the church was a large metal cross with a metal horizontal line that used to have the name of the church on it. The letters have since been taken down or fallen off, I am not sure. My six year old son, who has spent the majority of his life on the ranch: helping brand calves and horses two or three times a year, knows more about brands than he does the alphabet. He can tell you that Nana and Papas brand is Bar 4 A, Aunt Megans brand is Heart Slash 9, his brand is Bar Lazy T Reverse C and his mom and dads brands are 7 Slash Diamond and X Cross. He writes the familys brands on every piece of paper he sees and when he sees a new brand on a horse or cow he wants to know what it is and who it belongs to. My son has a passion for brands the way some kids are passionate about dinosaurs or video games. As we are driving past the church with the metal cross and the missing letters, my son says, Mom. What is that brand? Is it Cross Bar? With a chuckle, I told him that yes it sure was a Cross Bar! To my family and friends who are aware of the the ranch life, this is a pretty humorous story. Ranch kid who doesnt get to town much and knows a whole lot about brands and cattle, is innocent enough to think that the church would have a brand on the side of it. To people who are unfamiliar with the life that we lead, this tells them that we dont get our child to church much and maybe we need to get him in there more often. But what they dont know is that we do go to church. Our church just happens to be on a high ridge, over looking a winding river. Our church is on a grassy plain with nothing in the horizon but more grass and the bluest of blue skies. Our church is in a mountain pasture with cows grazing in the meadows and a bald eagle flying over head. Our church is where ever we are when we feel closest to our Creator. In our church we are happy with our simple ranch life. We might not be able to recite verse, but we know that as long as we are good people and take care of His creations, the Creator will take care of us. Our church is the Earth and the parishioners are all that inhabit the Earth. In our church we dont cut down Mother Earths resources to build a bigger and grander church and we absolutely dont cut down any of Creators creatures, two legged or four, in order to make ourselves seem bigger and grander. In our church, we pray each and every day; not just on Sunday. In our church we thank Creator for giving us our way of life and the chance to live in a place where life is so simple that the brand of clothes we wear isnt near as important as where our horse brand is located.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 03:34:06 +0000
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