With Christmas just 2 days from now, I thought I would share a story I wrote for the Community Christmas Program that was last Sunday evening in Elk City, Kansas. It is a story about a midnight ride I took on a Christmas Eve years ago. But that night, I had a friend riding with me that I didn’t put into this story, this is what was happening in my mind and heart when we saw and heard what we experienced that night. May God Bless you this Christmas and throughout the New Year.
The late Cowboy Poet, Baxter Black always ended his agricultural commentaries by saying; “This is Baxter Black, from out there.” This story begins ‘out there’ where God speaks not only to Shepherds watching their flocks but to cowboys, cowgirls, ranchers and farmers on a different level that few ever comprehend. The year isn’t important, but I will remember the feelings and what I saw and heard, that night, ‘out there’ for the rest of my life as it is sketched upon my heart.
The week leading up to Christmas had been harsh, when a winter storm blew in, covering the prairie with almost a foot of snow. My days were spent riding pens, rolling out bedding for the cattle and pushing snow with the payloader. By Christmas Eve, I was exhausted.
Since the kids wouldn’t be home for Christmas, I ate supper and headed to bed around seven-thirty. I slept really hard and of course I woke up about ten-thirty. Something compelled me to look out the window and the night wasn’t dark, it was bright!
A full moon had occurred a couple days prior and with the clear skies, the moon lit the prairie enough, I was compelled to saddle up my horse and take off for a midnight ride.
A perfect night for a midnight ride is rare and this one was not only perfect, it was, Christmas Eve perfect; snow on the ground, clear skies, no wind and a moon lighting my way. Little did I know, God had something to reveal to me.
My horse wasn’t happy to be working at night, still he trotted off on the road leading to the big pasture. I stopped him on top of the first hill to gaze at the horizon. Like many full moons, the lesser stars were barely to be seen with the moon masking their light. In the East, I could see a couple bright stars and wondered if one of them had been the star that called the Wisemen, to Bethlehem.
Looking North was two towns, one with the courthouse covered in white Christmas lights, the other with colored lights on main street, both towns looked like they could have been on Christmas cards. To the south and west lay the direction I was riding, not knowing why I was being pulled deeper into the snow-covered Tallgrass, I urged my horse onward.
Along with the brightness of the night, there was a special feeling, crisp and clean, almost Holy-like. Then I heard the quiet, a silence that seemed to bear down on me every time I stopped my horse to look around. I could hear in the distance; cars and the roar of a diesel engine passing along a highway about three miles away. Maybe they were people heading home for Christmas, or a truck driver stuck out on the road with a load to haul.
From one hilltop, I spied a coyote trotting along a path down by the creek, it never even noticed my horse and me. Another hill I looked into the draw with a pond. There were deer standing beside it, drinking and nibbling on grass they pawed through the snow to eat. A couple times I heard an owl hoot, but the silence seemed louder with each hill we topped. My mind was taking everything in, searching for what God was wanting me to see or hear.
Then, I heard the bells.
Looking at my watch I saw that it was midnight. One of the churches in town had a new bell system that played songs every day at noon and of course tonight it marked Christmas Day with one song: ‘Silent Night’. Everything fell into place, the bright night, the deafening silence, and I understood what God was revealing to me. The bells rang; “Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm, all is bright. Round yon virgin Mother and child, Holy infant so Tender and Mild, Sleep in Heavenly Peace, Sleep in Heavenly Peace.”
What was Bethlehem like, that night? Was that Christmas night this quiet? Was it this bright or brighter? Did the air feel this holy or more so? My mind was spinning as I thought about Bethlehem in Judea, the baby, angels and the shepherds.
How closely did this night resemble that night? Probably nothing close but in my heart, I felt as if I could have been right there. My mind wandered in what I imagined Bethlehem was like those many years ago and then, I came back to another Bethlehem. Bethlehem Lutheran Church that I attended when I could.
The church, founded in the late 1800’s by German Immigrants had a tradition, like many churches, they would sing ‘Silent Night’ at the end of their Christmas Eve service. They would turn off the lights, light candles to sing, but the first verse was sung in German.
Did you know; it doesn’t matter what language that song is sung, you know exactly what is being sung in that first verse? Your brain translates it for you.
Sitting on my horse, I tried to remember the German words as I softly sang.
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
I am more than blessed because we cowboys, cowgirls, ranchers and farmers who get to work ‘out there’ get to walk with God on a level, few comprehend. We know and understand God’s subtle messages HE sends to us, and that sometimes, he just wants us to know, how much HE LOVES US. And, like that night when I was ‘out there’ on the prairie, I hope you too, realize how much HE LOVES YOU. After all, that’s why a baby came to us, born of a virgin, in a barn, died on a cross, rose and is coming again. May Your Christmas be filled with LOVE, JOY, and PEACE!
Educated Cowpuncher 