Change Your Perspective

Can a horse have blue eyes?  Apparently the answer is “Yes.” I didn’t know this until my cousin Melody shared this very funny story about growing up on the farm. This was a lesson about perspective.

Collecting Eggs

Melody remembers my cousins Renee and Bobbi deciding to collect the eggs and taking her along. Of course, I wasn’t there, so I’m taking some license, and may even embellish … just a little.

On the farm, you have to collect eggs at least twice a day, morning and evening, company or not. I can almost hear my grandmother, saying “get” as she motioned the three girls out the door.

A Horse With Blue Eyes

Melody, Renee, and Bobbi walked down the path, until they reached the barn yard. As they walked Melody noticed a white horse with blue eyes following after them on the other side of the fence. “I never saw a horse with blue eyes,” she said to no one in particular. Renee responded, “She’s named Snowball. She thinks she owns the place.” Renee swung the gate open, stopping Snowball in her tracks. It wasn’t much of a chicken coop, more like a shed built off of one side of the barn to store farm equipment. The shed had open doors on both ends making it easy to get the equipment in and out. On the side opposite the barn, roosting boxes were built into the wall.

As the girls were collecting eggs, Snowball followed them into the coop. Melody was wearing a shirt which had brightly colored flowers. Apparently, the horse thought the flowers were real, because when Melody tried to move past her to the next roosting box, Snowball would not move, but instead tried to bite at the flowers on her shirt. This startled Melody and she jumped back dropping the eggs she was collecting.  When Snowball came toward her, she ran out of the barn. The strangest thing happened next; Snowball followed her. The other girls called after Melody, “Don’t run!” “She won’t hurt you!”

Jesus Help Me

Melody was out the door and turned the corner to run around the barn. Now, Snowball followed her at a trot. Melody turned to see the horse following her and started screaming, “Help me! Jesus, help me!” The other girls came out of the barn and saw her running with the horse chasing her and they started running after the horse yelling, “Snowball, stop; Snowball, stop!”

Perspective

Melody’s brothers, who were on their way to the fishing pond, heard the yelling. They dropped their poles and went running down the path toward the barn. From their perspective, it seem like a parade: Melody, Snowball, Renee, and Bobbi all running through the barn yard. They began to laugh so hard that they needed to lean against the fence railing to support themselves.

You know things are not always what they seem at the time. This experience was obviously terrifying to Melody, but she laughs about it now. God can change your perspective … maybe, even show you a horse with blue eyes.

“And Elisha prayed, ‘Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

2 Kings 6:17

Copyright © 2023 Chuck Locklear

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