Instead He sends rainbows

My hometown near Binghamton is a small town and my folks don't quite have the stamina to kick up their heels like they used to. So our options for getting out and about are limited. That's how we ended up gambling and drinking at the race track.

Remember, I like to use exaggeration because it catches the reader's attention. So for all my horrified Christian friends,we didn't really gamble. We just picked our favorite horses in the program and pretended to lose our homes and livelihoods when our pseudo betting didn't pan out. Which was every time. We did have a small glass of wine to ease the discomfort of our bony butts getting pressure sores on the hard stadium seats.

Tioga Downs is a harness racing track and we were watching "pacers ". Pacers race in a modified trot where the legs on the same side of the body move forward together. It makes for an odd rocking motion of the horse. It is strange as the harness wont allow them to canter or gallop easily which is what a horse who wants to go fast would naturally want to break into. Pacing is like race walking. It is sort of like going your slowest gait but faster than all the others going their slowest gait. Pacing is a natural gait for some breeds and also for camels. There were no camels in the pacers we saw, which was too bad as watching race after race of pacing horses tends to get monotonous. Had they thrown in a pacing camel or better yet the less common pacing aardvark, I think even my dad might have stayed awake.

But I kept wondering how one goes about training a horse to go really fast in only second gear when he has 4 gears available. The horse is learning a very valuable spiritual lesson. How does one use unlimited power with restraint?

Amd of course I thought of God. He could force us to believe in Him, but He doesn't. He could punish us as we deserve for all our sins and transgressions, but instead He sent a substitute to die in our stead. He could destroy the world and start all over again since we have really been a disappointment from the get go but instead He sends rainbows.

There was one horse that won easily and we learned he was undefeated. This was his unprecedented 13th straight victory. This horse clearly understood that one can still win with restraint. That is God 's gamble as well. Psalm 78:38 NIV Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.

Psalm 76:10 NIV

Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise,
and the survivors of your wrath are restrained.

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The Kentucky Derby and Mothers

I love that the Kentucky Derby and Mother's Day are often (maybe always?) the same weekend. Raising a Derby winner and raising a child are not that dissimilar. You have to treat both with gentle but firm guidance, breaking bad inclinations, but not the spirit. You must train them to use their God-given talents, but know they can't just run wild. They must be taught to run with control, and to go the distance.

If you give them their head, they will run themselves to the ground before they hit the first corner. If you hold them in too tightly, they will be left eating the dust of the pack. You want the very best trainer money can buy to guide them through their education, and you want the race to be jockeyed (accompanied) by someone with experience, gentle hands, fearless instincts, and a desire to win.

The best mother knows all this. It is surprising there are not more women Derby trainers and jockeys. I was rooting for the horse with the woman trainer this year. The woman had been in the hospital, with about a week to live, when she had a heart transplant and a new lease on life. The horse had been born ostensibly dead. As the trainer watched sadly, the foal suddenly breathed, leaped to his feet and ran.

That horse placed third yesterday, which all in all, is pretty amazing given the history. I think it would have made a better blog if the horse had won, but another long shot won instead, and I am sure he had a compelling story of his own. We all do.

My favorite mother would have been a good horse trainer if she weren't afraid of horses. She knew to give us freedom and trust us even when we didn't deserve it, so when we were in the race, we would know how to run responsibly when we couldn't hear her voice. She knew that reining us in now and then prevented broken legs and maybe a few broken hearts, and that the race is not always to the swiftest, but to the determined. She knew to let us follow our passions and let us discover our limits, while being sure we had fresh hay in the manger and soft straw in the stall when we limped home discouraged and weary.

To all those wonderful mothers out there training their foals for the Big One, you are doing the most important job on earth.  And for this mother, this often stumbling, bumbling but so hopeful mother, I cling to the One who has eyes wide enough to watch my babies as they run off to races I can't accompany them upon.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.


Proverbs 22:6
 ⁶Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.