Saddle Up

Asherel and I share a love of horses. All animals really... but horses are in the top 3. I have also always loved bicycling, and as a little girl, pretended my bicycles were horses. I named them, and talked to them, and pretended I was a great jockey as I galloped around the block. I worked on a farm as a child and spent many hours shoveling manure so I would be allowed to be near horses. As an artist, all I drew til I was in art school were horses.

When my first two kids came along, neither loved horses, bicycles, or art. I was flung into a world of incomprehensible math, music, and computers. I tried very hard to understand and love these things because I loved my children, but it was like an elephant trying to do ballet. I even went so far as to become a volunteer teacher at our math club so that I could share their passion.... but I was always a croaking frog trying to be a trilling lark.

And then, 9 years after birthing these alien beings so different from me, Asherel popped into our lives. Asherel loves all animals with the same passion as I do, even crying over squished ants. She loves horses so much that in a mirror of my childhood, when we stay at a timeshare to visit Matt in Virginia, Asherel volunteers at the horse farm there, just to be near the horses. And as if God had not blessed me enough, He gave her a deep passion for art and made her an exceptional artist. Finally, here was a child that I understood. Don't get me wrong.... I love my boys and am amazed by the things they know and can do.... but it is an incomparable gift to have a child that speaks your language.

The Bible passage I read yesterday was when Jesus is preparing His disciples for His imminent departure. He tells them that their role is not one of servant, but of friend. It struck me greatly that the God of the Universe would desire friendship of His children. The intimacy and gentleness of that passage reminded me of how lonely sometimes parenthood can be, how frightening, how overwhelming. I don't think in the younger years that our intent should be to have "friends" but to guide, discipline, and prune our children to grow strong and sufficient in God. But what a blessing and delight to have such a connection that when you settle back in the years of grey hair and aching joints to be able to say, "Saddle up, friend, let's ride together."

John 15:14-16 (New International Version)

¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.