Milk and Honey

Honey is nature's candy.  Have you ever bought those little straws filled with honey and sucked out all the sugary goodness?  We love those around here.  Any time we see honey straws, we stock up.  We stock up on honey, in general, any time we see it being sold locally.  Not only is it a very good topping on toast, oatmeal, yogurt, but it is also helpful for people with hayfever.  A friend of mine who is an entomologist told me that if you eat honey from local bees, you will get special antibodies that help when pollens are at their peak - because honey is made from the same pollen.  He recommends at least a spoonful a day.  What a sweet remedy!

Some people love to drink honey milk.  My children love it, but I rarely make it.  It's just that...a warm mug of milk flavored with honey and maybe a sprinkle of cinnamon.  It's a really nice substitution for hot cocoa, and it's worth a try!  Two amazing things at once: milk and honey!

When I was 15 or so, my family was on a trip across the United States.  We went the Southern route, starting from my home state of Alabama.  We stopped somewhere in Mississippi to spend a night with some distant cousins of ours who happened to be dairy farmers.  We only spent one night there, but it was quite an education.  My cousin who was a year older than me (and whom I had only met that evening) offered to wake me at 4a.m. and take me with him to milk the cows in the morning.  This was a chore that had to be done twice a day.  He explained to me that there was no such thing at all as a vacation for a dairy farmer.  "You have to milk the cows!  They can't be ignored!"  So....I got up at 4a.m. to witness this thing that I knew I'd probably never see again.  I had it in my head that we would all be seated under cows milking away, and he humorously let me believe it, leading me even further down that ridiculous path!

When we got to the barn, which was a couple of miles away, I was amazed at the order and technology of a dairy farm.  It was much cleaner in the milking environment than I had imagined.  Each cow was cleaned before she was led to the milking machines.  These machines are very interesting!  They are designed for udders alone.  There is a contraption that hangs from overhead and comes down under the cow with a little vacuum system that has four little nozzles.  These separate arms are then place on the cows udders, and the milking begins.  Basically, my cousin's job was to wash the cow, attach the machine and repeat until all the cows were done.

During this process, I asked, "How many gallons of milk can one cow produce?"  I was thinking maybe 100 gallons in her life or so...but the answer was staggering! He told me that cows "in the wild" (haha) would yield about 10-12 gallons a day if nursing her calf.  But a cow on a modern day diet could produce as much as 120 gallons of milk a day!  Wow! What are they feeding these guys?  (It's a little scary, isn't it?) That is quite an abundance of milk!

In Exodus 3,  God spoke to Moses from the burning bush.  He told Moses that He had seen the misery of His people, and He was ready to deliver them.  He promised to take them to a land, flowing with milk and honey.  I absolutely LOVE this analogy! Is anything more pleasing?  A land flowing with milk and honey....I want to go there! God was promising to take them from a place of oppression and lack to a place of  freedom and abundance.  The chapters that follow are some of the most exciting in all the Scriptures.  The interesting thing is...when they got there (Numbers 13)...they didn't recognize it as the provision of God!  They were too afraid to enter in and had to spend more time wandering in the desert.

I wonder how many times we are like the Israelites?  We shy away from our blessing because it may involve more work than we had anticipated...or it looks a little daunting... like maybe we will fail... I think of my cousin with the dairy farm.  It was a lot of work.  They never could take a vacation as an entire family, but then again, they were doing quite well.  They had all the milk they could drink!  A beautiful home, a huge garden, lots of employees.  Not bad if you ask me.  Sure, they got up at 4 every morning, but they were very happy to do it.  There were many blessings that went along with all that hard work!  I don't want to miss the opportunities that lay before me because I'm afraid of what they may require of me.  I hope I'm never like the Israelites in expecting things to be handed to me without a little fight.  How about you? Are you ready to enter your Promised Land?

Don't be afraid to possess your land flowing with milk and honey!  And...after you milk all those cows, sit back and enjoy a warm mug of honey milk!

Helpful hint of the day: Buy organic milk!  :)