How A Goat Challenged My Faith

Last March after spending $3000 to have an eight foot fence installed, I planted my first real garden. I have grown a few vegetables in pots over the years on apartment balconies, but I now had real space to grow food. So I planted lots of seeds and started watering daily. Due to the Texas heat and extreme drought, most of my vegetable crop never made it. Many seeds never germinated and others just failed to grow. My corn did well the first few months but when it came time to start producing ears, it simply got burned up in the hot sun. When my tomato plants failed to grow, I went to a nursery in Kerrville and purchased baby plants. At first they seemed to be doing well, but one day all the plants disappeared. One plant did have a stump sticking above the dirt, but another plant, roots and all, simply vanished. Later that month I watched in shock as a porcupine squeezed through the holes of the fence. My next winter project will be to wrap chicken wire around the bottom of the fence to keep small critters from getting inside and having lunch.

One of my goals with the garden was to share, which I was able to do. While most folk’s garden failed them this year, mine did not. Maybe the difference was that when I planted my garden I prayed over it, asking God to bless it so I could help those in need. That prayer was answered as I took bags of zucchini and cucumbers into town. I also made multiple loaves of zucchini bread which I shared with friends. I also harvested arugula, mesclun salad greens, and basil. So though it was not a roaring success as I had hoped for, I did have a pretty good crop, better than anyone else I know of out here.

I joked a lot about my best crop, which I did not plant. Since I had to hand water the garden every day, grass and other weeds started growing abundantly. By the time I was able to purchase some good weeding tools, I had 4 to 5 feet tall grass growing in and around the garden plot. Grass and weeds started growing elsewhere too. The task of removing all that grass seemed overwhelming. I did spend a few hours for several days trying to remove some of the grass but it quickly became clear it was going to take weeks to remove it all. I knew there was an easier way, goats.

Goats will eat anything down to the root and there are thousands of goats in Edwards Co. The problem was how to get a goat. The chances of a goat just wandering into my yard and following me into the garden was so unlikely that though I fantasize about it I did not expect it to ever happen. The nearest sheep (who are pickier eaters) live about a mile away, and goats are over 2 miles away. When the opportunity presented itself I did speak to someone who raises goats and so I knew there was a possibility she might bring over a goat or two, but first my garden needed to close shop for the winter.

So for the past few months I have had goats on my mind, especially when I see all that grass and weeds taking over the garden. I think about goats when I push the grass aside looking for cucumbers that are hiding or arugula needing to be picked. I wonder if I have waited too long to request a goat when I search for the basil among the tall grass.

Well, Friday evening my problem was solved when I looked outside my window and spotted a goat walking by. In shock, I threw my coat and shoes on and went outside to greet my very friendly visitor. At first she kept her distance, but within a few minutes she started following me everywhere I went, which was straight into the garden. My new female friend was very happy as long as I stayed in the garden with her. She was like a little puppy dog, following me everywhere, rubbing her head and horns against me, and eating my weeds.

I immediately called the authorities to report a lost goat. Then I started calling my friends and neighbors. Someone had to be missing a goat but I as I write this I have no idea who owns her. There is always the possibility the owner doesn’t even know she is missing.

It is now early Saturday morning and the sun has not even risen yet. The goat has spent the night in the garden; I am guessing curled up somewhere sleeping. My plans are to leave her there tell either I find the owner, or more likely—find someone with goats who is willing to take her until the owner is found or keep her permanently.

It is not going to take her very long to eat up all my vegetable plants, weeds, grass, etc. Once the garden is cleaned out, which depending on her appetite could be sometime today or tomorrow at the latest, she will be out of food and so she cannot remain in the garden. (I did provide her with a five gallon bucket of water.) Without any other way to secure her, she could wander off onto neighboring property all of which is owned by hunters. For her own safety I need to find better accommodations quickly.

I will share the rest of the story later, after it has happened. Let me just close with this—we should never underestimate God. I hoped for a goat to clean out my garden but I did not really pray about God sending me a goat because it seemed like pie in the sky wishful thinking. A goat just wandering into my yard was too improbable, and yet God provided me with a goat. Not only did God send me a goat, he sent me one that is affectionate and doesn’t want to leave my side, and thus was willing to follow me into the fenced garden. I thought I would have to solve the grass problem myself by seeking someone with goats willing to lend me one, but God had the last laugh.

(Matthew 14:31) “And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’

(Matthew 17:20) “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Move from here to there. And it shall move. And nothing shall be impossible to you.”

(Mark 9:24b) “Lord, I Help my unbelief.”