Friday, March 1, 2013

Scrapiron! Not A Pile of Scrao but A Lovable Burro



"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey.  Even on a colt, the foal of the donkey" (Zech. 9:9)

Hey gang, as a child  in the mountains of Pennsylvania I had a very special friend, Penny, the donkey that pulled the coal carts out of the coal mine shafts.   Penny was blind from her many trips in and out of sun to utter darkness, so she was dependent on her human care-takers to get her to the shed where she spent her idle times.    When she was in harness and hooked up to the coal carts, she was amazing.  She could navigate the various shafts without the help of human hands.

Shortly after we opened the Village a very good friend called and asked me if we would like to have two ponies. This hit my hot button.   I had been advised by another good friend that when offered a bucket of dung, do not turn it down because the donor may one day give you the cow.  I found throughout the years that  was very sound advice.

After many hours of cutting Poplar Trees and building fences, the day for delivery of the ponies finally arrived.   When the truck finally backed up to the gate the two ponies were quick to vacate their prison on wheels.  But the surprise of the day was this long droopy eared burro by the name of Scrapiron that lingered in the front of the trailer.    I believe I could write a book about this young friend who gained a place in not only my heart and our family, but the hearts of all the kids who had the privilege of getting to know him. 

As I sit here this morning and recollect the many stories about this amazing animal, one seems to stand out as a favorite.  We were blessed to receive other gifts of horse and ponies and learned a great deal about the old adage "Be careful all gifts are not what they are cracked up to be.”  On one occasion we were blessed to receive a magnificent animal, Geronimo, but it had one problem, he was super hyper and riding him was out of the question. 

During the months that followed we tried everything in our repertoire to settle Geronimo down, but with no success.  As a matter of fact I believe he became even more hyper with each attempt to make him civil.  And then one day an old codger and his side kick came to trim the horses hooves and happened to see Geronimo in one his finest hours.  I was certainly impressed, but not Fuzz. He simply walked into of the tack room and came out with a halter for both Geronimo and Scapiron and a lead rope. He tried the two together!     

It was an amazing experience for me to watch the transformation of Geronimo, not into a docile horse, but one that provided a challenge for our more experienced riders. I thought of that experiment many times when we received a boy who was like Geronimo, a ‘Wild Stallion’.  

      Soooo, I believe Abba Father has a very special place in His heart for these long eared docile animals. He could have chosen a fine Arabian White Stallion for Christ entry into Jerusalem as their king, but, instead we read in Matthew 21:2-3 that he sent two of His disciples into the city saying, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me".    In Revelation we read "And I saw the heaven opened and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war" (Rev. 19:11)  Yes, then He will be on a white stallion but I would not be surprised if his warriors will be on donkeys.

Blessings,

Gramps

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