We went out for pizza last night with Paul and Hannah, during the course of our conversation I compared myself spiritually to a horse running on the open range vs. a domesticated horse stuck in a stall. The word picture in my mind came straight from a little book I’d read 20 years ago called Dark Horse by John Fisher. Once you’ve tasted fresh green grass, dirt still clinging to the roots, the open plain, and freedom, hay and a stall just doesn’t cut it. Here is an excerpt from the back of the book:
“He reared back and his cry was a might thing. “If you would follow the White One, then follow me!” I watched the eyes of two of my companions begin to flicker and flame. And in that instant I knew. It should have been a hard decision. But it was not. The truth was too clear. The challenge was too compelling. The alternative too costly. “There was a choice…but there was no choice.”
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The book tells a story about a horse living at a ranch, who encounters a wild stallion, who shows up unexpectedly and challenges him to leave the safety and security of life on the farm to run the open plain. The book is an allegory, 59 pages long, if you are a reader, you’ll read it in one setting.
Do you mind if I include just a little more from the book? Great!….
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“I turned toward the stage. I had to find relief from this wild horse’s scrutiny. I had to collect my thoughts. but as I stared at the staging area, something looked different. After looking at the dark horse, the stage lights looked- somehow lesser- more diffused. …
Somehow it all seemed so hollow. Useless. Lifeless. I looked back again at the dark horse and his eyes were dancing with excitement. He knew what I was going through….”Do you mean to tell me….there are no white horses?” “No,” he replied. “There is one.” “You mean the White One?” “Of course. He is the only white horse there ever was or ever will be.” “Aren’t we to be like the White One?” It was another horse from the ranch speaking, for there was now a small group listening in our conversation.
“Yes,” said the dark horse. “but whiteness is not on the outside. It is in the heart. White isn’t what you look like, it’s what you do when you follow the will of the White One. You cannot change a hair on your body, but he can change your heart and shine his light in your eyes.”
I asked another question, trying to get the attention off myself for a moment for a moment. “Why then do we have white horse shows?” I asked. “What’s the point?” “That’s the point….there is no point.”
He was becoming restless as if my question had finally brought our discussion to the conclusion he was seeking. He pawed the ground, tossed his great head up and down with anger. “There are thousands of horses out there who have never heard of the White One and there is an enemy afoot- crouching at the door- while you waste your time comparing whiteness.”
At that he reared back and his cry was a mighty thing. ” If you would follow the White One, then follow me!”
Isn’t it amazing how many pieces of literature can be related to Biblical principles. A high school AP teacher once told me to read the Bible as a work of literature, if nothing else – that nearly every great piece of literature was related, in some way, to the Bible. Little did she know my following her instructions would change my life (for the better) forever.
Easier for some of us to follow a horse than a lion….
(Narnia)
Allegories make things so much easier to understand and remember, as long as they’re done artfully.
Thanks for introducing me to this!
Beautiful, simply beautiful. We find Him everywhere, in everything, in every story, in all of creation. The hardest place for most of us to see Him in is ourselves, isn’t it?