The Moral to this story is the Lord Jesus is our refuge and He put us in a family where we can be safe and loved. This ought to make us very thankful!
Can you sing with me, children, "Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play..."? That old song is so true about Plain View Farm. It once had lots and lots of buffalos on it, and though the buffalo are gone, it still has an antelope or two!
Buffalo roamed on Plain View Farm long before the Alfred Stadems came to live there. Can you guess how long that was? A hundred years? Five hundred? A thousand years? Many, many thousands of years? It was a very long time, anyway. Before the farmer and his plow came to turn it under, grass grew so high it clothed the little hills and the flats like a forest. It was tall as a man and unless you were riding a horse, you probably couldn't see where you were going much of the time, it was so thick and tall. Imagine the size of the lawnmowers you would need to mow it! Well, as you might have guessed, the herds of buffalos, millions of them grazing the grass, kept it down, at least temporarily.
Gorgeous wildflowers--red, gold, yellow, purple, with hummingbird moths bumping into them--managed to grow amidst the grass too, but the buffalo ate everything like big black mowing machines. They ate and ate until they mowed the tall grass down to the ground, then the herd moved on to greener pastures. Later, next spring or summer, back they'd come to Plain View Farm and the surrounding area, just like a family reunion! They could have come back in winter too, because they could dig up grass from under the snow which would feed them through the wintertime. But mostly it was in the spring and summer that they spent most time on the land of which part would be called Plain View Farm. This went on every year until a circle of pressed up earth, a mound, rose where they liked to walk around and around, maybe to protect the young calves in the center when wolves attacked the herd. It is said that they formed circles for defending themselves, with their heads pointed outwards, and the little baby buffaloes in the center. Whatever the reason, they made a circle about thirty feet across.
The Buffalo Mound is just beyond the old Slough which lately has become a pond big enough for a rowboat, and a farmer plows the mound every spring and fall, so it may not be as high as it once was. But it's still there many years after the buffalos have grown only a dim memory.
Someday buffalos may even return to the mound they made long ago on the edge of Plain View Farm. Wouldn't you like to see that happen? Or would you be scared and run to your Mom or Dad, or maybe a big brother or big sister? After all, buffalos are huge, and can weigh over a thousand pounds and more, which makes them pretty scary close up! But you should know a buffalo is a wonderful creature made by God, and buffalos were a great blessing to the Indian people called Lakota who live in the Dakotas, because buffalos gave them practically everything they needed--food, clothes, and many other things. The buffalo gave everything so that the Lakota people could live and prosper--just like Jesus gave his everything, his very life, for us, so that we might live and be happy. Yet if you ever see a buffalo and still get scared, it is good to have family around you at such times, isn't it? The Lord Jesus is so good that he put us in the perfect family for us, with just the right parents to keep us safe and to love and care for us. Don't you think that is a super reason to thank Him? Why not thank Him now?
"The Buffalo is a great symbol of self-sacrifice...it gives completely of itself for others. The Buffalo was held in high regard by the Lakota people. It was a 'banquet' for the people. It gave up its own flesh and life to feed them. Its hide, to cover them, and its bones to dig with. For this reason, the symbol of the Buffalo is a sign of the Lakota virtue of generosity."--Description of the Buffalo with gold Buffalo Pin sent to Pearl Stadem Ginther, contributor to St. Joseph's Indian School, Chamberlain, SD 57326.
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