The Horseshoe

The Horse Shoe

Most days come and go with their routines, but then there are the days when life challenges our “normal”. Life stops you in the form of a blessing, a challenge, or a heartache. It takes great practice in trusting the Lord to see all three of these classifications in situations that would first be classified as a challenge or a heartache.

In today’s world, it seems like we are always skimming. We skim over the news, we skim over emails and text messages, we skim over relationships… We struggle to feel the weightiness of life, even when it is good. We want to skim past the goodness and see where it will lead instead of soaking it in and reveling in its glory. We have cheated ourselves out of our present.

A couple of weeks ago, I skimmed over a message about my Uncle Butch being sick. Can you guess what ailed him? COVID. I didn’t mean to skim, and in fact I know I cared very deeply, but I didn’t stop to really understand what that initial message said. I kept going on with my day. The dishes got washed, the laundry folded, the family fed, the email checked and so on.

Finally, after talking to a couple of family members about my Uncle Butch, I called him at the hospital. We had a lovely visit and he was doing well. He was going home the next day, and he did, but then another message came on that next day. Uncle Butch had a heart attack right after coming home, and also had what seemed to be internal bleeding. In an instant, both of his daughters were rushing to him from different parts of the country. They were praying and hoping to make it in time. They were stopped in their tracks by heartache and challenge.

The messages about Uncle Butch kept coming. They came a couple times a day from his daughters. The messages were both agonizing and joyful – the anticipation of the unknown and the comfort of the known. What were they going to say? Hope. They all said HOPE! They all held miracles. They all said and held the power of the Lord’s grace, love, and patience.

My almost 80-year-old uncle, whom I have always had a special relationship with even though we hardly see each other, was fighting for his life and beating all the odds. He has been called lucky through it all, but those of us who know the Lord know that he is being given grace by God. But how does luck turn into grace in the eyes of those who do not believe?

The morning I found out that Uncle Butch was now in a larger hospital, on a ventilator, and struggling to live, I went to visit my parents. My son, Brogan, and I were pulling out of the driveway when God sent me a sign. At the very edge of our driveway, where it meets the road, was a horseshoe. I jumped out of the van, ran into the road, and grabbed it. I did not skim over it. What I did not notice until it was in my hand, is that it was covered in horse poop. My lovely new driving gloves were holding a poo covered horse shoe, but I didn’t care. As a child of God, I saw the beauty in the symbolism.

I ran back to the van and told Brogan, “This is a sign from God. This is a sign that Uncle Butch is going to have good luck!” Brogan agreed, and his eyes were alight with his joy and awe in God.

To tie this into how luck becomes grace is this. Luck comes from the world if you do not believe in God, but God will give unbelievers “luck” to open their eyes to life beyond themselves. He begins making a trail of “luck” that leads to Him. Slowly the luck becomes grace, and the world becomes God, and the unbeliever becomes a chosen one. The new chosen one has made it through some “poop” by the luck that became grace.

The horseshoe symbolizes “good luck” throughout various cultures, but for me, a horseshoe was the perfect sign of grace in this situation, because I am an equestrian. I feel close to the Lord when I am near the horses and nature. My “luck” was packaged in a symbol personalized for me, because that is how God shows His grace to His children, by reminding them that He knows who they are, and He knows where their eyes are looking. He loves them deeply, and He is patient through the love of His son, Jesus, as he helps each of His children find their way, lost shoes and all.