"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
No comments:
Post a Comment