Out-there lures

Daisy broke out Sunday morning and I learned in the adventure.

You need to know that Daisy was a wild child who wanted her own way and was leery of authority. I won’t describe the wrestling match involved in starting the tethering process.

But the break seemed to come. She lowered her head in obedience.

We weren’t satisfied with obedience, however. We wanted trust and began a long process of wooing her to us. We started with obedience but we really wanted love.

So when she escaped Sunday morning, I was anxious that the out-there might snag her attention. But her eyes were on me. After she saw me, she walked up calmly and began to follow me.

Daisy is a two-year-old filly that we saw transformed from an over-the-fence kind of baby into a gentle horse willing to trade the wide-open spaces for my hand and protection.

But Daisy is my teenage daughter and my pre-teen son, too. How the freedom can beckon! Many horses (and teens) are hungry for the green grass on the other side of the fence, not knowing the harm mixed with the pleasure.

Had Daisy bolted from me, she faced a field of ripe alfalfa – a sure death-trap for a greedy and hungry horse. She faced a highway with trucks rolling at 60 mph. She faced an irrigation ditch filled with rushing water and steep sides. Dangers crouched where she could not see.

I want our children to find a safe path, to look at our lead and follow.

And, it occurred to me as I brushed down Daisy Sunday, that our Father wants the same thing from us. He is willing to wrestle with us as he did with Jacob, to teach us obedience.

But the ultimate goal is, when the gate is open and the out-there whispers, that we search out his eye and follow him.

If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.

John 15:10