Take a Lesson From Lester

July 20, 2023 | Read Time: 1 min

By: Rev. Mark Sorensen

And here I thought it was only in Texas that a random steer gets out of its yard and goes on a greater adventure, but apparently not.

When officers from the Michigan State Police Department (MSPD) learned that a steer had gotten loose and wandered onto Interstate 75, they sprang into action. Thanks to cell phones, viral videos and a post from the MSPD, what followed was captured and seen around the world.

The steer was named Lester, and it was a local wrangler named Ricky Littlejohn who rose to the occasion and went to work retrieving the errant bovine. “It was pretty wild! Cars were still flying by when I went after him,” said Littlejohn of the bovine rescue effort. Thanks to his special set of roping skills, I am happy to report that he saved Lester’s life. Not only did he help prevent motorists from crashing into the wandering steer, he also helped prevent the need for intervention from law enforcement that could have resulted in lethal force, which, sadly, happened a month prior in the same area.

It’s funny. I’ve seen myself in Lester a time or two. The line from Robert Robinson’s traditional hymn “Come Thou Fount” comes to mind: “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”

Perhaps you’ve been there as well? Yet, how gentle is the Lord and how gracious!

Here’s the good news for us all today, friends. There’s no distance we can travel away from the Lord that He can’t and won’t come after us all.

Jesus is the very picture of the distance God would go to reach humanity!

I love what the Apostle Paul tells Timothy:

“How true it is, and how I long that everyone should know it, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — and I was the greatest of them all.” – 1 Timothy 1:15 (NLT)

Not sure where this meets you today, friend, but know this... the Lord is near and Jesus’ love has you.

To God be the glory!

— Mark