Gentleness

 

Pastor Jamie has been preaching a series on the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22&23, and three Sundays ago was gentleness.  He related how that he used to shoe horses, and the gentlest horse that he ever shoed was a giant Percheron workhorse.  And I could relate to his assessment.  When I was about 8 years old, my granny Whitely had a hundred-acre farm in West Virginia.  She had a hired hand, Thermond A., who worked for her.  Thermond had a big draft horse that pulled the plow, the cultivator, and the sickle bar.  When Thermond came to the house for lunch, he would rub down his horse first before he ate his meal.  He took care of his horse, and his horse took care of him.  I remember Thermond setting me on the back of that big horse.  My little legs stuck straight out like I was sitting on the dining room table!  When Thurmond and his horse would cultivate the fields, the horse would shuffle his giant hooves down the rows of little corn plants so as not to step on the growing plants.  That horse was big, but he was a gentle giant.  Often, we think of gentleness as weakness, but it’s not.  Moses was the leader of millions of Israelites, but Moses is described as a meek man!  Numbers 12:3, “(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)”  Moses was a great example of gentleness.  May we be gentle today, is my prayer