We all remember the horse who taught us more than we taught them. For me, it was my childhood horse, Duchess. It wasn’t until I got older that I could truly appreciate her patience with me. Almost every horse person I speak to has a similar story. One in which their relationship with a horse went beyond pet, or even horse and rider. It was a partnership. Those are the experiences that often get horse people hooked. However, it is my belief that those relationships reflect Gods design. When we continue to pursue horses, we are pursuing the goodness of creation that God imagined in the beginning and plans to create again in the new heavens and new earth (Genesis 1, Isaiah 11). That is why it is so fulfilling. God desires to reveal Himself through His creation.
The Heavens Proclaim His Glory
When I started becoming interested in training, Duchess was my first guinea pig. It was with her that God first spoke to me through horses. She taught me the language of horses and, at the same time, the way we need to learn the language of the Lord if we are going to follow Him. I remember one day my mom said that God has always used birds to speak to her, and it occurred to me for the first time that not everyone meets God specifically when they’re with horses (a mind-blowing concept, I know). I would encourage each of you to seek God in everything you do. You may find that you see Him most in your pet dog, or in your children. Wherever you find Him, the point is that He can be found everywhere.
Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge.” He speaks through all things. His language is all around us, in his good creation, which includes you. If you read my entry entitled “Be the Horse”, remember the impact the knowledge of the Lord has. When the knowledge of the Lord surrounds us, there is peace. This knowledge is not knowing things about God, it is an intimate knowledge of God. The word for “knowledge” in the Hebrew is a derivative of the word used for “know” when scripture refers to a husband “knowing” his wife intimately. Scripture repeatedly uses the imagery of a husband and wife to exemplify Christ and the church. The way a husband and wife know each other more intimately than anyone else beautifully reveals God’s heart to know and be known by us. Some of that knowledge is revealed through His creation, and proclaimed day and night. For me, it is most evident through horses.
Psalm 148:10 and 13 says, “Beasts and all livestock, creeping things, and flying birds!… Let them praise the name of the Lord…”. Obviously, horses can’t speak human, that’s sort of the point. Instead, God’s glory is proclaimed through their very being. He showed me His good intentions for me when I continued to help Duchess understand what I was asking, even when she didn’t and became frustrated. He showed me His long-suffering when I asked something of her that hurt her, but she did it anyway until I realized. He showed me His beautiful handiwork in her beauty. We didn’t have to be doing anything for me to recognize His glory through her. In the same way, we are called to be vessels of His glory, whether we speak or not. 1 John 3:18 “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
Knowing God
What does it mean to know God? It is easy to say, “In the knowledge of the Lord there is peace”, but how do we come to know Him? Recently God has been using a particularly difficult training horse to teach me this lesson. This horse does everything I ask him to, and he does it calmly. However, he never looks at me. This worries me because we are currently training in a comfortable environment. Everything I am asking of him is something he knows and is comfortable doing. Everything going on around him is familiar. I can assume that if I were to ask something of him that he is not comfortable with, he would not have enough trust in me to follow. He would not know where to find his comfort, because he has not learned that he can find it in me.
God desires for us to look at Him. Just like me and that gelding, He knows what will come our way. He knows there will be difficult times and we will need a safe place to turn. To teach a horse to look to me under stress, I will put him in a round pen and push him. At first, he is looking everywhere except to me. However, eventually he will glance in my direction, wondering what the crazy lady in the middle wants with him. At that moment I will give him rest. Soon he will learn that when he looks at me, he gets rest. Do you see the beauty of the Lord in this? I will say it again, God desires for us to LOOK AT HIM. He wants to teach us that He is our comfort, He is our safe place. When challenges arise and increase in intensity, we will be ready because we know where to find our peace.
A song called “Show me your face Lord” comes to mind. My favorite version is sung by Steffany Gretzinger. I would encourage you to look it up and make it your prayer. The chorus says, “Show me your face, Lord, your power and grace. I would make it to the end if I can just see your face.”