“Like a caged animal.” I read her words and they stop me. I imagine the tiger in days gone past, trapped in a small cage at the Woodland Park Zoo.
It gazed and locked eyes with my grade-school self. There was a fire in his eyes…One that was fierce and reckless, bold and resenting.
I felt a combination of attraction and dread from this predator prancing back and forth in unsettled agitation.
In nature, he might pounce upon a person walking by, but here, he remains confined, helpless.
This muscle-filled creature, I could almost see running, like a beast of beauty through the long, Savannah grass of Africa.
Yet here? Steel bars bound him. A wild animal, trapped, utterly dependent on what once was prey, now utilized to pacify him. Here, he was no more than a houshold kitty.
And yet, I think we can all be like wild creatures, unable to tame the fierceness inside us. With no power, apart from God, to calm, regulate and control the beasts inside of.
We all, somewhere inside, cry for more, ache to be bold and strong, noticed and fearless.
If we are honest, we are all seemingly caged and dependent, during this season of Coronavirus.
As homeschool parents, so much of our life has already been harnessed.
Yet, we have found the freedom that comes with giving our lives away for the sake of another human being.
We have laid down our dreams, to make way for His bigger purposes.
We have seen the grace that comes with accepting The One who made us.
Concluding, He is completely supreme and so much better at orchestrating our lives, than we are.
We are bondservants, NOT slaves.
A slave is held captive, not by choice, like the tiger at the zoo.
A slave is like a wild beast, powerful and resistent, angry and dependent on his own carnal instincts for dependency and survival.
As a bondservant, we have been loosed, set free. Yet then, out of choice, we return the keys of our lives to The Savior who delivered us.
All power we hold, all strength, all purpose is laid down willingly, back at Our Father’s feet.
We bow to His goodness and trust The One who laid His life down willingly…Not because we were good or deserved it. Quite the contrary.
He died while we were yet sinners. (Romans 5:8)
God came to a people undeserving, offering His whole self, sacrificially. So now, we pour out our oil and bow down to Him willingly. (Matt. 26)
This virus, at the same time, will press and test every carnal thing in us.
It is the grapes in our lives crushed to make wine. It is the grinding of everything we hold, to see what surfaces from the inside.
Pressure doesn’t make us ugly, it only exposes what was hiding inside us, all along.
And as society expels fear and panic, reels and questions everything that’s happening, I know, any area of our lives feeling crippled within us…was never really dependent on Jesus is the first place.
Every false idol, every arrogant way, every worldly pursuit, every self-righteous resistance will fall and come crashing down willingly or unwillingly, eventually….At the Savior’s feet. (Phil. 2:10-11)
Our God is jealous for us and He doesn’t share His throne with anybody. (Exodus 34:14)
A Little Story – A Harness for the Lord
There is a story of a herd of wild horses wandering carefree in a field. All these beautiful creatures lived unharnessed and untamed, left to kick, run and prance at their own leisure.
One day, a gentle horse trainer walks upon the field. He sees the wild horses. Some recognize the bounty He is carrying. Others turn and run away, fearful of what He might be wanting.
Then, this horse-trainer selects one horse specifically. He calls it by name, welcomes it to himself.
The one horse almost unkowingly separates from the rest, drawn to the trainer. He looks back, but then, submits to the outstretched arm who now gently pets it, offers it good things, and leads it separate, away from the wild herd.
When the trainer has the horse in a a safe place, it places a loose harness around its neck.
At first, the harness feels foreign, unfamiliar. The horse bucks a little and questions the Masters intentions. 
But then, led even closer to the trainer, He sees the open doors of a barn supplied with soft hay, bountiful grain and a warm stable to sleep in.
After that day, he relaxes and gives His Master complete power to lead him, willingly, in whatever direction He might go.
Meanwhile, the harnessed horse could hear the other horses kicking in the fields, snapping and bucking, throwing their heads back in wild rebellion and rejection, knowing one in their crowd was led somewhere different.
As the days pass, this horse learns the ways of the one who drew him in from the field. He turns to the right and the left, simply by voice commands.
The harness is softely kept on the horse, but it is not needed. Wherever the trainer calls, the horse goes willingly.
See, this horse has learned the character of his trainer; kind, gentle, and time and time again he has proved…He only has good things for him.
To be seen, loved, known and wanted is the greatest gift of all.
Contrary to the fears of those out in the field, His master never whips or withholds from him, any good thing he might need.
Still, the wild horses buck and mock the one harnessed horse, calling Him a “fool” for his willingly sacrifice or “lack of freedom”.
What the untaimed ones didn’t know was, the love of his master was more precious than all the days of careless grazing, wild adventures or thoughtless galavanting he had spent prior to feeding out of his masters hand.
Time continues to pass and unlike the red-eyed tiger in the zoo, this horse listens and bends his spirit to the way of the master.
As each day passes, it seems he has greater and greater peace with being hand fed, cared for and loved by his master.
He had forgotten what it was like to stand barren in an open field, barely shutting his eyes, for fear of a wild beast attacking him in his sleep.
His need to wander to find provision for himself has left; grass depleted, water dried up in summer. He grew to despise and pity those who were constantly dependent on themselves for survival.
The barn of his trainer was warm. The harness welcomed. The rails others feared, weren’t oppressive, but kept him where He wanted to be.
The wild horses arrogantly kicking their feet in so-called freedom, but he didn’t care. He never wanted to leave the safety of his Masters house.
Famine eventually overtook the land. The wild horses, who once boasted at not being “trapped” by a harnness, unknowingly found themselves coralled in a trap. They were then slaughtered and fed to the masses.
The one horse who had been trained, accepting His purpose, continuing to live, willingly for just one master…
Then, the harnessed horse, the one who had been trained to tune his ear eagerly to everything the “One who Loved Him” was saying, or even whispering…
Felt the Master near. But today, was different than before.
As the world collapsed, that same harness willingly connected to his flesh, was tied to a chariot.
The obedient horse found himself galliantly carrying the King as He was ushered into the land.
This spirit-filled friend to the King, was adorned in beauty and protected from slaughter.
He was valued and selected to eat the grass in the open fields…The same grass the wild horses once taunted him to return to play in.
And at night? The horse was kept warm in the fully stalked barn where all the kings men gathered to guard him at night.
What once appeared like slavery to those refusing to be harnessed, became a passage way to freedom, love, pretection and provision.
Lesson: Confinement isn’t punishement. It’s who is beside us that really matters. Will we submit to the harness of the Lord?
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