Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Bleats - Stable – Tables (09/04/25)
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TITLE: E-I-E-I-Oh! | Previous Challenge Entry
By LINDA GERMAIN
09/09/25 -
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Our new home had two outbuildings. For a while, we simply referred to them as the barns until he painted the bigger one red with white trim. That’s where the productive hens lived and enjoyed soft radio music to stay calm.
The other structure had stalls inside that were meant to house horses. We distinguished the two by labeling the not-red one as the stable.
The stable-barn stayed empty until my uncle came to live with us for a few months. He parked his old car in that one. The stable and the car looked rather abandoned, so no one paid much attention to that area of the farm.
Those dynamics changed one day when a neighbor’s goat escaped and showed up on our porch. The owner came and led him away with a leash. His name, of course, was Billy (the goat, not the guy). That Houdini routine kept happening until finally the man asked Dad if he would like to have the slippery deserter.
Never having had a goat, we were thrilled. He was just so cute and smart and had a lot to say as he bellowed his unique goat language. Since we had a relative named Billy, we called our new addition Billy Gee.
He took walks around the acreage with my grandfather, who was paralyzed on one side from a stroke. When they stopped to rest, the goat would bow its head as if aiming to butt something and then gently press it against the side of the elderly man’s leg. I have a picture of Gramps leaning on a tall, sturdy stick for balance, while the goat seemed to be supporting him in place.
Stubborn Billy Gee escaped from his private stable as often as he had from his previous home down the road. Many mornings, we would find him on the front porch lying on the chaise lounge as if he thought he was somebody famous. Again--cute, smart, and skillful. Stay with me. There’s a point.
I carpooled with a group of kids (people, not goats) from school who picked me up early every day. The first time they saw Billy Gee asleep on the porch furniture, they laughed. In the beginning, it was embarrassing, but after a while a reclining goat on a lounger became routine, and no one even noticed.
There’s an old saying that anybody can get used to anything, even a kick in the pants.
Around suppertime in the stable, we usually would find Billy Gee standing on top of Uncle’s old vehicle. Who knows why goats do weird things? They just do.
Scripture has a lot to say about goats…and sheep. God does not compare His faithful followers to the former, but to the latter. He knows that, like sheep, we can be led astray unless we know our Shepherd’s voice. Goats, on the other hand, with their own mysterious agenda, couldn't care less.
Many humans, like some goats, can be devious enough to cause confusion and draw our attention away from the Good Shepherd. They may even stand atop strange places to yell irritating nonsense that almost sounds right, but isn’t.
We, lambs of God, must stay intentionally attuned to His voice. Wandering off on our own only gets us lost and in trouble, which is neither cute nor smart.
Meanwhile, back on the farm, Dad eventually gave up the egg business, sold the hens, and planted a crop of tobacco for a season, and then hung it in the not-red barn to dry. Yes, Billy Gee ate a lot of it. He seemed addicted.
Sadly, that silly goat, in one of his unpredictable adventures, accidentally did himself in. Maybe it’s because he hated the cart my brother built for him to pull. I don’t think he (the goat, not my sibling) cared much for being in harness or following orders. It slowed him down too much and kept him from constantly causing trouble--a goat’s main job.
The message is, please don’t be fooled by a smarty-pants goat, no matter how charming, who clamors and yammers but doesn’t say anything worth hearing and seems bent on wreaking havoc.
Believe me, it’s always better to be a sheep and stay within the sound of the Lord’s voice and safe in His divine stable.
_____
*true
Matthew 25: 33-34; 41 (NLT)
He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.”
Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, “Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.”
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