Conversation Point

A Sacred Cow

You may have heard about Star.

Star is a calf who was born in Rural Retreat, Virginia, this past December 27. Her birth would not be singled out among the thousands of calves born every year but for the simple fact that Star was born with two faces. While forty to fifty people stopped by the Heldreth family farm each day to see the two-faced calf for themselves, Kirk Heldreth, Star's owner, considered donating her to Virginia Tech for research purposes or selling her for show. But Heldreth and his family grew attached to Star, deciding they would like to "keep her around for awhile and see how she does." What is most interesting, and touching, is that Heldreth believes that, "the unique thing about Star is she's got the will to survive more than any calf I've ever seen." Spoken like any proud parent, seeing beautiful strength where others see only grotesque deformity.

What do you think Jesus saw as he got up each day and headed out to do his Father's business? It would appear that Jesus had an understanding of what he needed to do each day and sought out those most open to receiving his help. With his growing reputation came more and more people, many living on the fringe of the excitement generated by the hope that Jesus was the Messiah, but still very much interested in his message and work. It is fascinating to me that for all the times that Jesus encountered, engaged and healed the blind, the lame, the comatose and the deaf, his disciples and followers never ceased to be amazed at his power, his ability to transform lives in short ordered, simple conversations ending with people getting up and walking away to new lives. It's easy to identify with their perspective. A steady diet of miracles takes a little getting used to.

Although it would appear that Jesus went out each day looking for woundedness, poverty, shame, disability and broken spirits to make whole, I don't think anything about Jesus indicates that he held that perspective. I don't think Jesus went searching for what was wrong in people's lives. Jesus traveled the land making connections with people who happened to be struggling with physical, emotional and spiritual issues. Since Jesus' own life wasn't particularly easy, my guess is he felt a kinship, a unity of purpose and hope as he moved among the men, women and children, Jewish and Gentile, that he met each day. You see, there is a difference between defining other human beings by what you think is wrong with them and opening yourself to a person created in God's image. It would appear that Jesus was more about the latter.

And this is where we come back to Star, the calf with two faces and the family who loves her.

While I'm sure the Heldreth family was a bit startled by Star at her birth, their immediate concern was not how to fix her deformity, but to love her and keep her alive. As it turned out, her own will to survive allowed her to drink from a bottle, which solved the problem. It also allowed her caretakers to "spoil her," cuddling her as she ate. Other farmers may have decided she wasn't worth saving, but the Heldreths saw their Star as unique, not for her physical appearance, but for her spirit. The crowds coming to see the calf with two faces are only coming to see something odd, something unusual that they might never have the chance to see again. Granted, the daily gathering of gawkers will not get to know Star personally, but because of the Heldreths' example they do have the chance to look at her as something more than a freak of nature, to see her as a living being created by God, which is by its very nature something quite wonderful.

The Gospels give accounts indicating Jesus performed a number of healings privately and then urged those recipients to keep silent about what had happened. I'm not quite sure how that would be possible. But I suspect these private moments and their more public counterparts were offered to anyone paying attention as an opportunity to explore their own perceptions. Jesus may even have posed the question, "If you have come to see to be able to believe, what is it you now see? What is it that you now believe?" We have not been privy to all the personal stories from people who came to hear the Sermon on the Mount, those who assembled for Jesus' return to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday or those who gathered at the cross on the day of his death. We don't know if or how people's lives were changed by their observations of how Jesus saw other people, and from that awareness, how he interacted with other people.

Suffice it to say that Jesus didn't look at anybody as if they were a calf with two faces. He looked at each person he met, seeing their beautiful strength and their faith. He saw the best of who God created them to be and he loved them. That is how God sees us and responds to us now. That is, by this example, how we can look at and respond to each other.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 6:42 PM