It's amazing (even awesome) to me how God seems to delight in taking the things that we deem utterly impossible (yet very desirable) and giving them to us!
I've wanted a horse pretty much since I knew what they were. Realistically though, I knew there wasn't any chance of my getting one before I was Oh, say, 36 or so. So I made friends with as many horse owners as I could, got a seasonal job on a ranch and enjoyed riding when I could.
A couple of months ago, a lady whose horse I exercised for her for a while called me up. She decided that with three children under the age of six she didn't really have time for her horse any more. She told me that she had been praying and looking for a teenage girl to bless the way that she wished she had been blessed when she was a teen. And did I want a horse? For free? Oh, and, she'll lend me all the tack I could need until I'm in a position to buy my own or she gets another horse! Was I interested?
Um, duh!!
We have bylaws in our jurisdiction which won't allow us keep horses on our property, so I started looking for a place to board her. The stables down the highway charges $10-$20 PER DAY! Yikes! I'm trying to save money for college and there is no way that I can afford to spend $3,600-$7,300 a year on a non-essential! So I kept looking. A farmer friend across the highway said that while they don't have a pasture set up for a horse (they keep cattle), their neighbour used to have a small breeding farm and might be willing to let me keep a horse in her pasture.
Well, I didn't really want to call up some lady I only knew because her grandson came to camp here years ago, and ask to board my horse for me. So I called other people. And I called, and called and called. And I got all "no"s. So finally I gave up and called Mrs. T. We went to look at her pasture and it was absolutely ideal! Twenty acres of fenced pasture land, with more grass than five horse could eat, a creek running down the middle of it, and riding trails all around! She even has a bale feeder and an automatic, heated waterer for the winter!
To top it all off, she refuses to take any money for keeping Jazz there! She even got mildly upset with me for buying the boards I needed to mend the fence instead of having her buy them! She wouldn't even have needed to fix the fence if I wasn't boarding Jazz there.
So late Saturday night (actually it was early Sunday morning, but that's beside the point) I became the proud owner of one fine paint mare!!!!!
I was a little worried that she would be hard to catch - she has a little over twenty acres to run from me on, after all! So I went out Monday to work with her a little bit (read: shake oats and then feed them to her - repeat) to try to teach her to come when called. I wanted to leave her in the small paddock for a couple more days, but there wasn't really enough grass for that to be practicable. So I let her out into the pasture and prayed for the best.
This afternoon when I went to work with her again, and she surprised and thrilled me by coming when I called her! I hung out with her for about 30 minutes, just sitting there talking and singing while she grazed around me. And when I got up to leave, she follow me!! It is so amazing joining up with your horse! I think she might have even followed me into the pond if I'd tried!
Isn't God awesome?!? I can't get over how He orchestrates things so perfectly. He didn't need to. There was absolutely nothing that said He even should. But He did! But when I think about how I don't deserve this, I wonder why I don't feel the same awe amazement and joy when I think about my salvation. I mean, if I don't deserve a horse - I definitely don't deserve a free pass to heaven! But I have it...
Soli Deo gloria!!
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