The Lord's love for us is so great that He sends us help, comfort, support, and wisdom whenever and wherever we need it. Many times we are so wrapped up in our sorrow that we fail to listen for God's soft voice speaking to us; or we are so busy trying to find our own comfort, that we fail to see the simple things He puts before us. It is such a blessing when we recognize God's love demonstrated in our lives.
The following essay is an unpublished work of a dear friend, John E. Deppen. John is a Civil War historian and is active with Gettysburg Civil War reenactments. He is also a column writer for the Daily Item newspaper in Sunbury, PA. Reading this essay, I was so taken by the beauty of the simple message of God's love, that John graciously gave permission for me to include it here.
God Sends Horses
By John E. Deppen
I knew she was fighting for her life, but I stayed away. The family asked for privacy, and I, like most everyone else who knew her, heeded the request. I learned later that her suffering was so great that seeing her in such a condition would likely have seared grim images into my memory. I asked for prayers for her in church one Sunday. She died that afternoon.
I heard the news of her death the next day. The news was expected, but dreaded - another young, talented life eaten away by the merciless cruelty of cancer. I kept my feelings to myself for most of the morning, as if her death caused no interruption in my life, and then I poured out my feelings in a prayer during a solitary walk on my lunch break.
My walk took me along the backstreets of the small town where I worked.
The sunlight brightened my path, but not my heart. I knew there was no answer to the question "Why?" - it is often the most terrible, unanswerable question in such circumstances - and so I prayed for peace and comfort, for her spirit, and for all who knew and loved her.
I expected no sign from God, no immediate response to my soul's plea.
Knowing of God's infinite patience with me, I was content to be patient with Him.
As I walked, I saw behind a wooden fence two horses. One looked strong and mature with a brown coat, while the other, tan in color, looked smaller and more spirited. The horses lifted their heads to look at me. They walked slowly to the fence, and I walked over to them, drawn by their majestic forms and natural beauty. It is easy to fall in love with a horse, and I still remember the names of every horse that I've ridden upon the Gettysburg battlefield.
I reached out my hand to let them smell me, and they put their noses forward, inviting me to stroke them. I patted each one gently, hoping that they could sense I meant them no harm. The three of us stood together silently, making no demands or judgments, with only the occasional swish of a tail disturbing the air around us.
The horses did not know that death's shadow darkened my thoughts. They did not know that I needed to attend a funeral in a few days, or even what the word funeral meant. In that moment on a sunlit backstreet of a small Pennsylvania town, however, the two animals comforted me in a way that words can barely describe.
I did not cry for her that day. Tears came much later. The creator of the universe instead chose to remind me that, in times of sorrow, He sends comfort in forms and shapes that we sometimes fail to recognize. Sometimes God sends a vision of hope in the bright colors of a rainbow; sometimes He sends a blessed memory of the loved and lost to remind us of happier times; sometimes He sends His words of grace to be heard in the voices of others.
And, sometimes, when our hearts are broken and we cannot carry on,
God sends horses.