They say we aren't supposed to remember much from when we were eighteen months old.  Most of that stage of life is just a blur of stories, told to us by our parents.  I have one memory that stands out clearly as a bell, and it starts sixteen hands high.

 

I couldn't even reach the stirrups, and my balance was exactly what you would expect from a toddler, shaky at best.  My Dad had a "get 'er done" philosophy.  He lifted me and sat me squarely in the saddle of a massive horse named Nixon.

 

By any logic, this should have been a disaster.  I was a tiny girl on a mountain of muscle.  I had never been on a horse before.  I didn't have the strength to pull the reins, and I certainly didn't have the coordination to keep myself centered.

 

Dad didn't give me a lecture on safety.  He just wrapped the reins around the saddle horn, looked me in the eye, and gave me one simple instruction:  "Hang on to the horn."  

 

The Noise and the Silence

 

Looking back, I realize that Nixon was my first lesson in finding a Safe Harbor.  The world around us might have been moving, and that horse was certainly big enough to be scary,  but up there, I had one job: Hold on to what was solid.  I shouldn't have been able to stay up there.  There is a secret to the Leah Legacy that I learned before I could even talk:  Our safety doesn't come from our own perfect balance; it comes from the One who placed us in the seat.

 

The Rest of the Story

 

The world today feels a lot like Nixon.  It's big, it's powerful,  and it feels like it could throw us at any second.  We get "damaged" by the noise and the fear of falling.  We try to grab the reins and control things we aren't big enough to handle yet.

 

The Lord gives us the same instruction my Dad gave me.  He doesn't ask us to steer the universe.  He asks us to trust his grip.

 

For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear; I will help you. ~Isaiah 41:13

 

 When I was gripping that saddle horn with my little hands, I wasn't actually the one keeping myself safe.  God was the real Stronghold.  He was the light in my 'eighteen-month-old' world, ensuring that my time on Nixon was a place of peace, not fear.

 

If your life feels like a giant you can't control, stop pulling at the reins.  Just reach for the "Saddle Horn' of His Word.

 

Be still, and know that I am God ~Psalm 46:10

 

He's got the lead rope; stay in the saddle.