Is Your Cow More Grateful Than You Are?

One year when Christmas Day fell on a Sunday, a farmer decided to go to church. (Like some people, he thought he was fulfilling his religious obligation by going to church twice a year—at Christmas and Easter!) The sermon that day was preached from the text, “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider” (Is. 1:3). Isaiah is saying that man is dumber than the animals. After church the farmer returned home and stood among his cows. One of them began to lick his hand—a practical demonstration of the sermon he had just heard. Strong man though he was, the farmer began to weep as he thought, “God did much for me, and yet I never thanked Him. My cow is far more grateful than I am. What do I ever give her other than grass and water?”