The One About Buffalo

So I've had a thing for buffalo ever since reading this book by Hannah Brencher.

Not like an obsession that transitions into a sudden influx of buffalo print everything around my house...but definitely an awareness of them. (As if you could miss one, right?)

Her book was the first place I read that buffalo are the "storm chasers" of the animal world... While most hunker down or seek shelter to wait out an incoming storm, when buffalo sense inevitable bad weather coming, they run straight towards it in order to come out on the other side quicker. (Pretty brilliant.)

I find a subtle inspiration in them now, knowing that. (They're like my life mascot!) When God allows a "storm" in my life for the purpose of teaching me something and drawing me closer to Himself, am I really helping matters or protecting myself if I avoid or hide from it? God will teach us what he wishes to, however long it takes.

I want to be a "buffalo Believer", facing these tests and "refining fires" head on; faithfully relying on God's grace and wisdom to see me through and bring me "forth as gold" (Job 23:10). Even if I could outrun the storm or manage to just get caught in the tail end of it, there's no telling what blessings I would miss out on OR what bigger things I may face in the future, less prepared than if I had allowed God to prepare me in storms for what He may have coming in tidal waves.

My God is a mighty fortress, an unfailing bulwark; our helper through mortal ills.