Haley had made a decision! Frank had joined the herd of wild deer and no longer depended on Haley to take care of her, so Haley decided to not sit around and feel sad all the time. There were so many other good things in life, Haley was going to change her attitude and start enjoying life again!
Haley was so happy that she decided to make a video of herself that she could send to her friends. She announced to Joe that she was going to record herself on her phone as she ran from the house to the barn singing a happy song! She might even do a cartwheel just for fun! Joe warned her that it was ok to be happy and record herself, but she should really watch where she was going and not hold the phone in front of her face. Haley said that she would be ok because there was nothing between the house and the barn except open ground, how could she possibly get hurt?
Haley started recording, started singing, ran out the door of the house, and ran right into a…. cow! Haley bounced off the cow and fell on the ground! The cow said, “Moo!”
Haley yelled for Joe and asked why there was a cow in their yard, they did not even own a cow! Joe looked at the cow and shook his head and said that it must belong to one of their neighbors. Haley was excited and wanted to take the cow home right away, but Joe said that he was going to take time to eat his breakfast first. Haley asked what she should do with the cow while Joe was eating, Joe looked at the cow contentedly eating grass and said to leave the cow right where she was, she was having breakfast too.
After breakfast Joe called several of their neighbors and soon one of their neighbors arrived with a pickup truck pulling a trailer. He said that he had no idea how one of his cows got out of his fields and into their yard. He thanked Joe for calling him and then he took his cow home.
Haley was glad that the cow adventure was over, but Joe told her they still had to figure out how the cow got out of the field. There must be a break in their fence somewhere, and they had to find the break and fix it!
Joe got out the 4-wheeler and hooked the trailer onto it. He told Haley to put some fence wire and a few fence posts in the trailer. Joe got the tools that they might need and put those in the trailer too. Joe and Haley got on the 4-wheeler and away they went.
They traveled along the fence that surrounded their farm, and it was not easy! Sometimes the fence went through bushes that were so thick that the 4-wheeler could not go through. Haley had to push her way through the bushes and make sure the fence was not broken. Sometimes the fence went through a swampy area and Haley had to wade through the slimy, smelly swamp to make sure the fence was not broken. After a short time, Haley was scratched, sweaty, muddy, and smelly! This was not an easy job!
Just before noon they finally found the break in the fence! Two of the wooden fence posts had rotted and fallen down. The fence wire between them had not broken, but it was laying on the ground and the cow had just stepped over the wire and gotten out of her field. Joe and Haley pounded two new fence posts into the ground and attached the fence wire to the new posts. Now the cow would have to stay in her own field! It felt good to finish that job, and Haley was very tired!
Later, back at the farmhouse after they had eaten, Haley said, “I did not know that our farm was so big, we have so much land that we do not use. Why do we keep the land if we are not going to use it?” Joe answered and said, “I cannot do much with the land because I cannot use my legs, but I have kept the land because someday soon when you are grown up you will get to decide what you want to do with the land. When you are grown up you can probably have my job as the caretaker of Medford Forest, but there are many things you can do with farm also. Someday when I have gone to heaven, then this whole farm will belong to you!”
Haley was sad but also excited! She said, “Daddy, I hope you do not die for a long time! I want you to be here with me for at least 50 more years, but I cannot wait to be old enough to start making changes on the farm and using all this land! I really liked the time we had the science camp for the kids at Church, and I think that I want to do something like that. Maybe I will make a big Nature Center on the farm so that people can come out here whenever they want to and spend time learning about this wonderful world that God has made for us! Also, I think that I would like to plow up some of the fields and make huge community gardens so that people who live in town and do not have enough land for a garden can come out here and grow food for their families!”
Joe was smiling and he said, “Those are wonderful ideas, and I will help you all I can to get those projects started. I am so proud of you!”
Joe then said, “Since we are talking about inheriting things, we can learn a little bit more about who you are. Every believer in Jesus will get a wonderful inheritance when our life on this earth is finished.”
In the Bible in Romans 8:17-18 it says:
And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering. Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later.
Joe told Haley, “An heir is someone who will inherit something from a person when that person dies. Haley, you are my heir, and when I die you will get this farm. After this life when we get to heaven, we will see God the Father and His Son Jesus! Jesus is the heir to everything in all creation and the heir to God’s glory, and the Bible verses we just read say that we will inherit everything along with Jesus! We do not understand much of this, but we know that it is going to be great! There is so much more to come after this life! This life is such a short time, but the decision we make about Jesus will determine how we spend eternity (that is forever!)! Those who ignore Jesus and do not pray and ask Him to forgive their sins and come into their life will spend eternity being punished in a lake of fire, those who accept Jesus will inherit everything along with Jesus and spend eternity with Jesus in all of God’s glory! Everyone needs to decide where they want to spend eternity!”