Box Stall

We were shopping for eight year old Lauren’s first horse.

She had outgrown my old gentleman JJ and was ready for her own horse.  A horse she could continue what JJ had begun to teach her.  A horse she could grow the same unique relationship bond that I enjoyed with my horse Danny.  A horse to call her own.

We found a six year old gelding for sale named Josh.  His owner didn’t have an indoor arena and since it was winter, she had trailered him to the stable where I boarded Danny.  Here we could try Josh out in the heated arena, and I could get a sense of his temperament by how he responded to working in an environment new to him.

Danny’s stall is right across from the entrance to the arena.  It means that when the big sliding door is left open, as it usually is, he could see horses as they passed the door.

I noticed Danny standing very still as he watched Lauren and I follow Josh and his owner into the arena.

The owner rode Josh first, and a little concerned at his young age and his height of 16 hands, I asked if I could sit on him before I let Lauren ride him.   I walked a couple circles at one end of the arena before asking him to move into a trot down the long side.  Just as we passed by the open door there was a tremendous crashing and banging in the barn.  I heard yelling and running as the barn hands responded to whatever seemed to be tearing down the stalls.  After a few minutes, someone slid the door to the arena shut, which I didn’t think necessary as Josh seemed as bombproof as his owner boasted, not spooking through all the commotion going on outside the arena.

Once Lauren had finished riding Josh, I left the arena to go back into the stable.  Danny’s stall window had been closed and he was pacing anxiously back and forth.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa handsome.  What went on out here to get you so upset?”  I took his halter off the hook and stepped into his stall.  He quietened down as I haltered him and led him to the wash rack to begin grooming him.  I was working on one of his favourite spots when the barn hand came up shaking her head.

“What was all the racket out here?”  I asked her.  “Everything okay?”

“When Danny saw you go by the door on that other horse, he just went crazy!  Kicking and rearing.  In fact every time you went by, he’d get worse.  I had to shut the door, I thought he was going to come over the stall!”

“Danny!  That was you trying to bring down the barn?”   I stroked his neck, admittedly a little flattered by his jealousy.

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 4:24

This verse from Deuteronomy flatters a bit too.  The God who exists as far as time stretches backwards and forwards, who created the universe and everything in it, who knows and sees all things.  That God is jealous over me, and He’s jealous over you.

In the context of this verse and others like it, God claims that His jealousy burns when we allow ourselves to be seduced away from Him by idols.  The same way you would feel if your best friend or significant other started paying more attention to someone else.  The way Danny felt when he saw me riding another horse.

So, just what is an idol?  God views an idol as anything that pulls our attention away from Him.  Think about this with me for just a moment.  An idol isn’t just the usual catalogue of all the things your mother warned you about.  God created and gave us many, many good things with the intention that we enjoy them; friends, sports, music, food, education, art, nature, talents … horses.  But when something starts to be more important to us than God, when we desire the created more than the Creator, well then those things can start to cause problems.

Understand, God is jealous for you because He loves you so deeply, because of the incredible relationship he wants to have with you, and because He wants only the very best for you.

I’m afraid that stall will forever bear the marks of Danny’s jealous fury.  Dear child, don’t be surprised if God does a little stall kicking of His own to bring your focus back to Him.