We were on my way back from helping a friend with a horse that had been injured. The horse put his foot somewhere he shouldn’t have and the result was not pretty… I started thinking about how many injuries I had doctored, rehabbed, and tried to heal over the last six years (and even before that). It is always a little funny to me that animals who should have really good survival instincts are really good at trying to take themselves out. We put them in safe environments, take care of them, and yet they always seem to find a way to hurt themselves.
When Tank was little, he loved to lay down right next to the fence. He’d end up getting his legs stuck and then would just lay there and wait on my mom to come drag him out. He never really grew out of it. Once he started living at my house, he would still lay right next to the fence and end up stuck, except now he was 4 and not so small anymore. One day he was laying there with his feet through a panel as we all stood around him trying to figure out our next move. He lifted his head up, looked at us and groaned, and then laid his head back down to wait… Almost as if to say, “Hey guys I did the thing again. I’m waiting for you to get me out.” He was fine, and we had a pretty good laugh once we finally got him out of the panel.
Fast forward a few years and along comes Bubbly. She also had her fair share of close encounters with the fence that required us grabbing her legs and rolling her over so she could get up. One of these days she didn’t wait on us. I found her in the barn covered in blood, with the round bale feeder dragged about 5-6 feet from where it had been. She’d cut her leg all the way to the bone. Somehow she missed all the important tendons, but let me tell you, she was in pain, and it broke my heart. It took MONTHS of doctoring and wrapping before it healed.
I wonder how many times I’ve laid down too close to the fence and had to wait on God to come rescue me, or how many times I’ve tried to handle my situation by myself and made matters worse. Humans and horses really have a lot of similarities. We are smart enough to know better, but very rarely does that stop us. I feel like more often than not we are sitting in our problems like, “Hey God, it's me, and I did the thing... again.” Honestly, I know He has to shake His head and laugh at us sometimes. And I also know there are times where we hurt ourselves badly enough that His heart breaks for us and our pain, even when we bring it on ourselves.
I could walk out in the pasture and point out every one of my horses' scars and tell you the story that goes with them, but when I look at those injuries, I don’t think about how dumb my horses are. I think about how glad I am that it wasn't worse. When I look at my horses, I don’t see their scars and their past mistakes. I just see them.
God knows everything about us. He has rescued us from ourselves more times than we even know. He sees our scars but doesn’t hold them against us. He takes every injury and every misstep and uses it for good. There are times when we might end up a little too close to the fence and need to be rescued. And other times we might even get tired of waiting to get rescued, take matters into our own hands, and make things way worse, leaving ourselves bloodied and scarred. And yet, when we come to Jesus, He just sees us. Not the scars. Not the mistakes. Just us. And, If we let Him, He will take the time to help us heal the pain and trauma we bring on ourselves, taking the bad and working it all out for good, every single time. So in our shame, grief, embarrassment, confusion, anger, or whatever it is, we can come before Him and let Him heal our wounds.
Genesis 50:20 The enemy meant it for evil, but God used it for the saving of many lives.
Psalms 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.
0 comments