The Stranger

There is an ox in a barren field.  She has been plowing for a really long time.  Her shoulders are rubbed raw from the harness. Her hooves are cracked and bleeding. Her eyes are bloodshot and she’s breathing hard. Her mouth is dry, and her tongue is like a desert. Her knees are wobbly and buckling. Her back is striped with whips from the driver who has been beating her using her.

 She collapses into the field and can’t go any further. This angers the master. He begins to whip her fiercely. Yelling.  “You worthless animal get up! What are you good for? This field isn’t going to plough itself!” As he is about to strike her again a Stranger grabs his hand and stops him cold in his tracks. The Stranger takes the whip from the master. The Stranger speaks in power, “Go…go and never come back.” The master trebles in fear for he’s never seen so much power.  He runs away.

The Stranger then comes to the ox in the field and kneels down beside her. He gently reaches out his hand and she flinches at His touch, for all she has known is the whip. He speaks a word over her. “Peace to you my sweet child.” She takes a deep breath and slowly surrenders to the touch of the Stranger.  He looks her in the eye and says I have a gift for you if you will receive it. The ox quivers for the master had tempted her with a gift, a gift that was nothing but an empty promise. But there is something different about this Stranger.  He is gentle and kind.  He smiles at her and she trusts him.

 The Stranger removes her harness and puts his hand on her head singing over her. He speaks over her, “You need neither be brave or afraid for I am with you.”  And then he reaches into her side and her eyes go wide. It is like for the first time the ox can feel the enormity of her pain; decades of tension and hurt and angst and pain.  The ox bellows and the Stranger continues to dig in her side. Just as the ox is about to pass out he withdraws his hand from her side and he pulls out a spiky ball like a mace.

 And in a moment relief rushes over the ox. Her bellow quiets into a moan and then into silence.  She breathes deeply feeling the air rush into her lungs for the first time.  The Stranger then begins to put a salve on every single one of her wounds.  He is gentle and as he works, he continues to sing over her. After he puts the salve on all of her wounds, he binds them in white linens, so that she can heal.

Over the next few days the ox sits in a pasture with the man who was once a Stranger, but who now is a Friend. He spends his days feeding her, giving her drinks of water, singing over her, and tending her wounds. The ox begins to feel something exploding in her heart that she has never experienced before. It is deep and joyful. It’s love. The ox gets her strength back and she begins to walk again. She has a bit of limp, as she walks, but it’s not a painful limp. She sees her Friend and she smiles.

 He says, “Come with me.”  He takes her to the base of a mountain, and she looks up and shudders because it looks steep. But the Friend leads her to a hidden path.  The path isn’t steep or hard.  They continue to walk the path for a long time until they get to the top of the mountain.  It’s dusk and as they reach the top of the mountain the ox stops because she sees the mace and the whip from the master.

 She takes a step back and is filled with anger, but the Friend whispers “Forgive them for they know not what they do. If you do not forgive them there will be a day where once again you will be stung by the whip and the mace will be embedded in your side. My child, I am the Sheriff of this land, and justice will be served to those who have hurt you. The mace and the whip have no power over you anymore. Let them go.”

 On the top of the mountain the ox gives a mighty bellow that reverberates around the valley. But then she walks forward with the Friend, and together they burn the mace and the whip.  The Friend looks into her eyes and says, “I am proud of you and I delight in you.”  And then he says, “Cast your eyes out there into the valley.”  She can see all the oxen who are striving and straining and hurting, and a holy discontent stirs in her soul.

She looks at the Friend.  “What can I do?” He responds, “Walk with me and I will guide you.  Together we will go free them from their chains, but we need not rush. For though the other hurting oxen do not know it I am with them as I am with you.”