Oh, how I love playing around with titles! You might think I’m talking about the NFL Bills beating the New York Jets yesterday (it wasn’t a miracle; they won 32-6) or some other happening in the city of Buffalo.

In Janesville, Wisconsin, Dave and Valerie Heider decided to start a hobby farm raising – you guessed it – buffalo. In August 1994, one of their cows gave birth. To a white buffalo. Amazing! So much so that they named her Miracle.

It turns out that white buffalo are pretty big in Native American mythology. News of this Miracle birth spread, and soon people from all over were making Janesville a destination spot. You see, to the Native American tribes of the Midwest, a white buffalo is akin to the second coming of Christ, according to a Lakota medicine man who came, Magi-style, to see the newborn calf. He came to pray and leave an offering.

If you saw the 1990 epic saga “Dances With Wolves”, you get the picture of the deeply sacred relationship between Indians and buffalo. Now, four years after this film, Miracle happened. To Native Americans, this was a symbol of of a new harmony among people of all colors and tribes. Maybe as a parallel coincidence in recent history, we are seeing an increased awareness of the troubled history of this continent. We came, we saw, we conquered. We displaced in what amounted to genocide the tribes of natives. Even as recently as a century ago, the Osage were murdered for the head-rights of the oil found on their land. Go see “Killers of the Flower Moon”. Now, sadly long after the fact, we are recognizing and honoring Native Americans.

To complete the story of Miracle, she was literally a one in a million birth. During her short (for a buffalo) ten years of living, Miracle changed colors four times. It fulfilled ancient prophecy, to unify the four peoples of red, white, black, and yellow. We are loved by a God who gives us miracles of all shapes, sizes, and apparently species. Signs that God wants unity. His Son Jesus prayed for it. It is the end-game. There are no conditions for the love our Heavenly Father lavishes upon us. When the world no longer knows and practices hatred, racism, and prejudice, maybe it will be due to indicators like the birth of a white buffalo.

Pastor Art