A Tale of Four Horses Chuck lived the ideal life. At 10 years old, he lived on a farm with chickens, cows, pigs, and lots of farm land. He lived with his parents and his little sister that was a couple of years younger than he was. She thought he was the best big brother that any girl could have. In her eyes, he could do nothing wrong. Chuck loved life on the farm --- fresh eggs, fresh milk, fresh vegetables � what a life! A typical day for Chuck started early in the morning � about 5:30. Chuck would get up and put on his work clothes. While it was still dark, he would go to the barn and milk the cows. With a couple of buckets of milk in hand, he would stop by the chicken coop and gather some eggs. He took all this inside to the kitchen and then headed to the bathroom to clean up and dress for school. When he was dressed, he would go back to the kitchen for a big breakfast of eggs, grits, bacon, biscuits, and milk. --- Then it was off to school. His family wasn�t rich � they were actually rather poor � but Chuck felt like the richest kid in the world. He had a wonderful family and enjoyed everything he did. Even getting up before the sun came up was exciting for him. Once every two weeks, his family would load up the wagon with vegetables, milk, and eggs. They would take the wagon into town to trade for the things that they didn�t grow or raise themselves � clothes, flour, sugar, and stuff like that. It was an all day trip. On that day, they were up at 4 o�clock in the morning loading the wagon so they could leave about an hour later for the three hour ride into town. At the end of the day they usually got back close to midnight. Then they had to unload the wagon � they usually got to bed on those days a couple of hours after midnight. (Of course, then they had to get up at 5:30 to start the daily chores.) Chuck�s 11th birthday fell on a �going to town� day. When his mother went to wake him up early that morning, he asked if he could stay at home instead of going to town. He wanted to spend his birthday at home. His mother wasn�t too sure about this idea, but she said she would talk to his father while they loaded the wagon. Chuck got dressed and went outside to help. As they finished loading the wagon, his father turned to him and said, �Son, I think you are old enough to stay by yourself. We can carry some extra goods in your seat. Take care of the farm and we will see you tonight.� Chuck hugged his mother and father, then watched them drive off down the road in the wagon. He was alone --- he was his own boss --- he was free to do whatever he wanted to do�.. AFTER he fed the chickens, cows, and pigs. AFTER he picked some beans from the garden and pulled weeds from around the tomatoes�. BUT � he was alone! By noon, Chuck had all his work done and settled down on the front porch for a tomato sandwich � a freshly picked tomato sliced up on a piece of bread. With his favorite sandwich in hand, he started thinking about how to spend the afternoon. It was kind of warm, so he decided to hike down to the creek to do some fishing and maybe take a swim. He would cool off in the creek and maybe have some fresh fish for dinner. The afternoon went better than in his wildest dreams. Within one hour of getting to the creek, he had caught six fish. He swam for a couple of hours and then headed home to clean the fish. He fixed and ate his dinner about six that evening. After washing dishes, he did his evening chores and sat in his father�s rocker on the porch. He was very proud of how well he had taken care of himself that day. He hadn�t been childish � he had acted like an adult � he could handle anything now. He decided he would just sleep in the rocker on the porch so that he could hear the wagon when his parents got home. He would get up and help them unload the wagon --- that was the responsible thing to do. He closed his eyes and was soon sound asleep. The sun was shining in Chuck�s eyes when he woke up. He had overslept! He didn�t hear his parents coming back and they didn�t bother to wake him up either. He jumped up and ran inside the house � the kitchen was empty � the bedrooms were empty. He ran out to the barn and the fields� they were empty too. HE WAS ALONE! Chuck had been a little worried when he woke up, but as he checked around the house and farm more, he was starting to get really scared. Where were his parents and his sister? Why hadn�t they come home yet? He was trying to be brave, but he was scared and worried. Chuck finally sat down on the edge of the porch and began to cry. They had no phone out there and the nearest neighbor was over 10 miles away � he had nobody to call. Around noon, Chuck started thinking about the things he did the day before. He remembered that he had not milked the cows, gathered eggs, fed the animals, or anything else today. There was nobody else to do it, so he had to get up and get busy. Maybe he would feel better after he started doing some work. He was also getting hungry --- maybe an egg sandwich first. For a while, Chuck was so busy trying to catch up on the chores that had to be done that he didn't have time to think about being alone. He had a lot of work to do that had to be done to keep the farm going � this was their life and now he was the only one there to keep it going. The sun was already down when Chuck finally laid down on the couch that was on the porch. They had a big, covered porch where the family usually spent the evenings together. There was a rocker for mom, one for dad, and a couch where he and his sister usually sat. Tonight Chuck was taking the whole couch � he was exhausted. Once again, he started worrying about where his parents and sister were. They were almost a whole day late coming home now. This had only happened once before when a wheel had come off the wagon and it took them several hours to fix it. Chuck wondered if there was any way that he could help them� Town was too far away to walk --- what could he do? Suddenly an idea hit him --- they had horses in the barn. He had never ridden a horse � they were used just for pulling the wagon and the plows. He had read stories of people with saddles riding horses, but had never seen one --- only pictures of them. He had to try. Tomorrow morning, after he did his chores, he would get on a horse and ride him toward town to see where his parents were. � The next morning he woke up early and rushed through his chores. All the while, he was trying to figure out how he was going to ride that horse. He knew he needed something to hold on to � maybe he could make something out of rope?? Chuck decided to eat an early lunch and pack some sandwiches to take with him. As he ate his lunch he was going to fix up something to hold on to when he rode the horse. Using a picture from a book as a guide, he started making what the book called a bridle. He cut the limb just long enough to fit from one side of the horse�s mouth to the other with a little sticking out on each side. Then he put a notch in the limb on both ends. He tied about a five foot piece of rope to each notch. He looked at the picture and saw all the other things that went around the horse�s head, but didn�t think he really needed all the extra ropes. This would work just fine. He would put the stick in the horse�s mouth and pull on the rope to turn the horse�s head in the direction he wanted to go. The book said that horses always follow their head so that should work. Chuck took his creation in his hand, put his pack full of sandwiches and water on his back and headed for the barn where the horses were. He walked up to the first horse and put a rope around its neck. He carefully led the horse outside next to a couple of hay bales that he had stacked up so he could get on the horse(the horse was bigger than him). When he got the horse next to the hay bales, he climbed up on them and reached up to put the stick in the horse�s mouth. All of a sudden the horse threw its head back and took off running. The rope that Chuck was holding the horse with came out of his hand. Chuck flew forward off the hay bales and face first into the dirt. Chuck looked up in time to see the horse running across the field. Chuck got up, brushed off his clothes and wiped his bloody nose on his shirt. That fall into the dirt really hurt and he had lost one of the horses. He just wanted to sit down and quit, but he knew he had to go check on his parents and sister. He was a man and that was his responsibility. Chuck headed back to the barn to get another horse. He was going to tie this one up before he tried to get on it. It wasn�t going to go running off and throw him on the ground like the last one. He was smarter now and knew what he was doing. Just like before, he led the horse out of the barn with a rope around its neck. He walked it up next to the hay bales and tied it to the fence post. There was no way that horse was going to get away. Chuck walked to the front of the horse, forced the stick in the horse�s mouth, and tossed the ropes on the horse�s neck. The horse didn�t like it, but Chuck had been smart enough to tie the horse before it could run away. Feeling pretty confident, Chuck climbed up on the hay bales next to the horse. All in one move, he put a hand on the back of the horse and threw his legs over the horse. Well at least he threw his legs over where the horse WAS. The horse had moved sideways as soon as it felt Chuck�s hand. Chuck landed on the ground flat on his bottom. He looked up just in time to see the hind legs of the horse coming his way. He rolled over and the legs just missed him. Chuck couldn�t believe what was happening --- the horse was going wild. It had spit out that stick and looked like it was trying to move the fence post. There was no way Chuck was going to try to ride that horse! Chuck was getting tired and sore --- first he lands on his face and now his rear end. He was mad now. He was not going to let a dumb horse keep him from going to help his parents! Chuck took three hay bales and stacked them inside the barn near where the horse stall was. This time he was going to get on the horse in the stall. The horse didn�t have room to move and the stall door was closed. He would just climb up on the side of the stall, stick the limb in the horse�s mouth, grab a hand-full of horse mane, and jump on the horse. Then he would be off to get his parents! Chuck got on the side of the stall and jammed the stick into the horse�s mouth. He held onto the ropes in one hand and grabbed the horse�s mane with the other. Slowly, he got onto the back of the horse. He shifted from side to side to try to get more comfortable on the horse�s bare back. When he was confident that he was settled in, he let go of the horse�s mane. Before he could blink his eyes, the horse ducked its head and raised it back up. Chuck held on for his life � he was scared! The horse jerked its head around again and Chuck went flying. He went over the stall wall and landed on top of the hay trough in the next stall. Chuck looked down at himself with one leg over each side of the trough and his head resting against the end. He was really hurting now and laid his head back. He couldn�t do it � he was never going to be able to help his parents now� he had tried everything and failed. He closed his eyes and cried. His eyes were still closed and he was still crying when he felt something strange on his leg. He was scared to open his eyes. After all the problems he had, he did not want to look down and see a snake on his leg. Maybe he should just lay there and let it bite him. A few minutes later, he felt like he was going up. He opened his eyes slowly and saw that he was on the neck of the horse. The horse had gotten under him when it was getting some hay. As the horse raised up, it had lifted Chuck up onto its neck. When Chuck had given up, the horse did the work for him. Chuck slowly turned around and found himself safely on the back of the horse. He opened the stall door and rode off down the road to find his parents. Chuck trying to get on that horse by himself was as hopeless as one of us trying to get to Heaven on our own power. We can�t just walk up to Heaven, we can�t try to jump into Heaven, and we can�t sneak into Heaven. The ONLY way we can get to Heaven is by accepting Jesus Christ. We need to ask Him to forgive us of our sins and come into our heart. Do you know that God loves so much that He sent his only son to die for us so that we can live forever? The Bible tells us in John 3:16, �For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.� Would you like to live forever with Jesus? --- I think we all would! Have you ever asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and come into your heart? If not, today would be a good time to do it. Would you like to do it now? [Pray with the children � then, after the prayer�] Would you like to know what happened to Chuck? The horse took him down the road to the town. He found his parents about 15 miles from the farm walking next to a wagon with only one horse pulling it (instead of the two that they left with). They were really glad to see him. The other had broken its leg just out of town and was not able to walk. They had to walk next to the wagon so that the one horse doing the job of two horses would not get too tired. They also had to stop and rest the horse (and them) every couple of hours. Chuck�s father helped him down off the horse and they hooked it up to the wagon. Chuck�s parents praised him for coming out to help them. Chuck just smiled and said that he had some help. In His Service, Allen R. Cook - Cookie Outpost Chaplain Belton A/G -- Belton, Missouri e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web page: http://GodForceMinistries.1colony.com/ _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com _______ To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit http://rangernet.org/subscribe.htm http://rangernet.org Autoresponder: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
