We live on a dairy farm in the middle of North Dakota, and this year has been one of the harshest and coldest winters for decades. We have had many trying times of frozen pipes, tractors not starting, equipment failing, cold animals, but in the midst of it all, I saw one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen:
Now, after you read this, just take a moment and close your eyes. Try to put my words into a picture in your mind. I actually tried to take a photograph of it, but you couldn't see anything but black from my house. A part of me thinks, maybe it wasn't suppose to be photographed...
I got up in the middle of one of the coldest nights in North Dakota history to check on the furnace, my 4 sleeping children, and also log into the Ap I have on my phone which allows me to check on the calves in the calf barn. As I was walking through the dark living room, I looked out our big picture window that faces right at the barn. What I saw stopped me mid-stride. It was breathtaking!!! The barn was dark, with only a small light illuminating the north side, everything was quiet, except just one thing. There was a mystical dance of winds/fog rolling off the barn in the most enchanting way. At first, I really couldn't tell what it was. Was it snowing again? Was it really foggy out? Or maybe just haze from the light on the barn? But, the more I stared, I knew it wasn't any of those things. It was STEAM! It rose out of the roof, the walls, the whole building and waltzed its way into the sky in a swirl pattern and then just hung there around the barn in this slow, rhythmic, circular haze. It was exactly like a snow globe and how the flakes just dance and float around because it is in bubble container. I stood there to watch this amazing dance that was one of the most enchanting sights that I had ever seen that it took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes because, in my mind, came this image: Its almost like God put a bubble of protection over the barn from the severe -62F degree temperatures, and he forgot about all the steam that would rise from all the cows body heat in the barn. So I got to see with my own eyes, his amazing work and protection in the still of the night.
I got up in the middle of one of the coldest nights in North Dakota history to check on the furnace, my 4 sleeping children, and also log into the Ap I have on my phone which allows me to check on the calves in the calf barn. As I was walking through the dark living room, I looked out our big picture window that faces right at the barn. What I saw stopped me mid-stride. It was breathtaking!!! The barn was dark, with only a small light illuminating the north side, everything was quiet, except just one thing. There was a mystical dance of winds/fog rolling off the barn in the most enchanting way. At first, I really couldn't tell what it was. Was it snowing again? Was it really foggy out? Or maybe just haze from the light on the barn? But, the more I stared, I knew it wasn't any of those things. It was STEAM! It rose out of the roof, the walls, the whole building and waltzed its way into the sky in a swirl pattern and then just hung there around the barn in this slow, rhythmic, circular haze. It was exactly like a snow globe and how the flakes just dance and float around because it is in bubble container. I stood there to watch this amazing dance that was one of the most enchanting sights that I had ever seen that it took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes because, in my mind, came this image: Its almost like God put a bubble of protection over the barn from the severe -62F degree temperatures, and he forgot about all the steam that would rise from all the cows body heat in the barn. So I got to see with my own eyes, his amazing work and protection in the still of the night.
Close your eyes...can you see it??? I know we had a lot of prayers from family and friends for God to protect our animals from the severe cold...I just didn't realize that I would be able to SEE that protection!
I love this story, and I'll be thinking about you guys as this bitter winter hopefully gets more mild soon!
ReplyDeleteWell you guys really aren't that much warmer! Stay warm, too!
ReplyDelete