Up and down. . . a lesson in caring.

It was shortly after 7:30 last night. Jennifer was drying her hair after a night of swimming and supper while I scrolled through the evening news on my phone. Outside the thunder of the storm was growing. I sighed. . . I love a good thunderstorm. They make some of the best sleeping weather. 

Then she interrupted me. "Did you hear that?" I did not hear anything She said it again before completing her thought: "It sounds like a horn. There it is again. Get up and look."

"A horn," I wondered. I expected perhaps a tornado siren but not a horn. 

Rushing to look out our window I was shocked to see seven horses trotting across the church driveway with a white Toyota pickup honking their horn behind the horses attempting to keep them off McConnells Highway. Jennifer was indeed right--she heard a horn.

Of the many things I thought I might see on a 'dark and stormy night' seven horses in my driveway was not high on my list. 

Over the next hour, Jennifer and I, with several church members alongside of us, attempted to find these misplaced horses and get them back to their home. The horses settled, for a bit behind the Family Life Center between the cemetery and the playground. Back there is a fence and the horses ran free and fast in the grass. I could not tell if they were afraid or having the time of their lives. But it did not matter. They were safe and they could graze.  

Up and down that hill I travelled trying to keep my eye on them. I walked that hill so many times that I lost track of the count. My knees ached. The shoes I wore, my dad's old Crocs, are a size too small so they kept slipping off my feet in the wet grass. Up and down I went because I knew it was what was needed in the moment as others watched the road for the owner of the horses.

We do a lot of things in the church for nameless and faceless people of our community. But we do it because we care and because it is what God asks us to serve and care. So I wonder today if you can find a place or a moment to serve a little bit more, a little bit deeper because it is what God asks of you?