The Multiplication Effect - Story 2

Time for another story!

Scripture says, "Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast..." (Prov. 12:10)

For some time now, especially as winter is fast approaching, I've caught Renaissance Man on the computer studying, researching, and wondering what to do about our horses.  Last year, we were able to keep them stalled in one of our barns near their pasture.  We live in a VERY windy area which is not good for the horses, especially the older one we own.  But this year, that barn is full of hay and farm equipment which makes it nearly impossible to use for the horses.  The only other option was to build a run-in shed which sounds easy enough.  My husband is very handy and at the time didn't even have a major contract he was working on, so he had the time.  The problem, once again, was cash-flow and those darn financial vows.

His research showed all sorts of plans, even fairly cheap ones, but there was just no way we could swing it.  The way his mind works, if it is concerned about even just one thing, it weighs heavily on his thoughts and impacts his sleep.  He goes to sleep with it on his mind, dreams about it, wakes up with it, walks around all day with it and it is a burden.  Guess who starts to help carry his burden?  Me.  So then, it starts to weigh heavily on me as well - it's that one flesh thing.

The kids and I pray quite specifically these days.  We were starting to spell it out to the Lord, not because we didn't think he could hear, but because the more specific we are with our prayers, I find that the Lord has to get the glory as he is known to answer specifically!  So we prayed about the upcoming winter and all the projects we needed to get done on the farm - how could we do them, Lord, if there wasn't money to do them?  Yet he knew our needs.  My eyes are already welling up when I think about what he did.

The weekend, surprise, surprise, right after the vows were made,  RM was determined to figure out what to do about these horses as it was getting colder and colder and windier and windier.  You are going to hear these words a lot, but "suddenly", RM got another brain wave.  He looked at our barn that the cows use for shelter in the winter and it dawned on him, he could divide it in half by building a small wall, then the cows could still come in from the wind and the horses could use the other half.  The only problem would be how would the horses get in and out as the main door would be blocked by the small wall.  Lo and behold there was a small human-sized door I had never even noticed on the horses' side.  If we could just convince them to try and use it like a human!  Well, on the first attempt they used it as if they'd always gone in and out like people!  This is quite something as horses do not usually like to go into small spaces that appear dark and foreboding, a miracle in itself.

Then RM quickly strung up some electrical fence (I told you he was handy) and suddenly they had a whole new pasture, too, full of delicious clover - they were in heaven!

RM came in to tell me how happy he was and to go see the horses' new home.  As I walked in the barn, it came to me, "God did it again!"  Sure enough, he saw it, too - he had not only multiplied our home, but our farm!  He had opened RM's eyes, to something he had walked in for months, but had never noticed and was able to show him a run-in (the horses' shed that we were supposed to pay thousands for) we already had on-site, without spending a dollar and without RM barely having to lift a finger -  the burden that had been on his shoulders, and mine, fell off, just like Pilgrim's in Bunyan's famous book.  Never have I understood that image as clearly as that day, as Pilgrim laid his heavy burden that he had carried for so long and dropped it at the foot of the cross.  Christ was doing that for RM and me - he was taking burdens off of us that were so heavy it was affecting our sleep even.  Thank you, Jesus, for caring even for horses and helping us to regard the life of our beasts.