Aoudads are sheep with curving horns native to North Africa, but introduced on other continents and states, including Texas. They resemble hairy goats. On Monday I watched an aoudad, ( or“Barbary sheep”) bathing in Possum Kingdom Lake, while a tall white heron stood by in the water as a witness. It was a scene that lifted me to an altogether different place. My daughter had cut the motor of our jet-ski in order not to disturb either the aoudad or the heron, and we watched transfixed a ritual that must have been common to them, but that was entirely new and fascinating to us, a glimpse of reality far from my normal one. Unlike the rest of my immediate family, I had never seen one of these exotic sheep at the lake. They are shy animals and there is a great deal of cover around the cliffs that surround the lake.

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth : it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” (Isaiah 55:10-12)

For the first time I believed every word of this passage from Isaiah. When the prophet wrote that God’s word was as sure as the natural phenomena that fill all our needs and deliver joy to our eyes and our spirits, I knew that it was true. It’s true that on earth there is enough beauty and truth to express the inexpressible things of the kingdom of
God itself, and that God intended at creation for us to see Him in His handiwork, not just with our eyes, but also with our spirits when we contemplate His world full of messages about Him.

Every dunk of the aoudad’s head in the water, every ripple from the heron’s foot, spoke of the Lord; every sparkling drop when the aoudad shook his head flashed a rainbow, a word and a promise from our God. Their message, and the song of the mountains and the hills come from the Word of God.

Love in Him,

Prue