Being Watched

While Asherel had her horseback lesson, I offered to do some odd job to help out at the stable. The owner is a wonderful lady who dedicates her barn to God. It is called His Barn. I just love everything about it.

"Well, this back room really needs to be cleaned," said Jillian squinching up her nose, "... but it is a nasty job. It used to be stalls and all these boards need to be moved and the stuff underneath shoveled out. It is moldy and dusty. You probably don't want to do that.....?"

Of course I want to do that! Who in their right mind wouldn't want to do that!? I mean I just watched a video of the tsunami hitting Japan. I am just thankful to be alive and not own a house on the beach (for once!). I gathered tools and gloves and set to work. A lovely brown horse with a white blaze had his standing stall facing the room where I was working. He reached his muzzle out to me as I worked right in front of him.

Since my hands were gloved and gross already with dust and who knows what else, I touched my cheek to his muzzle. He breathed warm air on my face. There is almost nothing softer or sweeter than a horse's muzzle. If you want to ease all the aches of the world that lie on your heart, kiss a horse's muzzle. It goes a long way towards comfort. While I shoveled and scraped, and wondered if perhaps I really didn't want this job, the horse watched. Every few minutes, I would walk over to him and lean my face against his muzzle.
"What do you think?" I asked him, when I finished brooming the last of the debris away in the first section.
He looked at me with clear affirmation in his gentle eyes.
"Wow," said a young lady who volunteers there, "That looks great."
"Yeh.... If I would put this much effort into cleaning my house, imagine the results!"
"I know, or my bedroom..," she laughed.
We looked out over the clean stall, and wondered in silence why it is that we will sometimes ignore the obvious needs at home to do such wondrous works abroad.

The horse breathed in the now fresher air at his head. That's what I need in my kitchen- a horse watching. I would clean a lot more joyfully if I could just lay my cheek on a horse's accepting and appreciative muzzle now and then. Maybe I just need an audience. Someone clapping and cheering would be nice too. As mothers, and keepers of the home, we are usually more likely to hear notice when we have offered up something green on the dinner plate. It is rarely complimentary. Sometimes, what we do needs to be done with the clear conscience of doing what is good, what is right, just because it is good, and it is right. Sometimes, the most affirmation we will get is the soft air puffing out of a horse's muzzle. Often, we won't even get that.

A friend posted something on Facebook recently that stopped me short. She said that maybe being a selfish jerk was the way to go in this world. They seem to get all the rewards. Perhaps doing the responsible, and right thing just wasn't really worth it. Job, the Old Testament model of patient suffering, asked the same thing.
In Job 21, he cries out, " I am scrubbing toilets out of the goodness of my heart, and for this I get my children killed, my crops ruined, and hideous boils on my face ?" (This is a paraphrase , Vicky translation.)
The wicked do seem to thrive sometimes, while the righteous go on struggling, unnoticed, and often maligned. And God never really answers Job. He simply appears to Job near the end of the book, and Job needs no further explanation. Seeing God is all Job needs and he is content. I don't know exactly what he saw, but I suspect it was a glimpse of eternity.

I glanced at the dust bunnies hopping along my wall boards. Today I will tackle them. There isn't a horse in my kitchen with a soft muzzle and encouraging nicker, but I am being watched.

Genesis 16:13
“You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”