Looking back over my life there have been several times that I could have experienced death, but I didn’t. These are times where I praised the Lord and am stilling thanking Him. One such incident came about when I was probably 16 years old. On our small farm we had 2 horses, one named Flicka and the other named Duchess. I never liked to go to the trouble of putting on the bridle, blanket and saddle; I rather just jumped on the horse’s back and used the mane as a steering device.

One such day I decided to ride Duchess, a tall Morgan horse, so I jumped on her back and headed for the deeper woods.

Since I didn’t have a saddle, I had to tuck my feet into the horse’s ribs to keep from falling off when the horse was running. As I headed back to the barn, I had the horse galloping. I was approaching some low hanging branches, so I wanted the horse to slow down. I ducked down to miss them but in doing so I pushed harder with my feet into the horse’s ribs which to the horse was a sign to run ever faster. I came so close to getting knocked off by those branches, which could have resulted into a severe injury or even death. I do admit that I was doing a lot of praying as well. I am so thankful that when the horse finally got to the barn she stopped, and I was able to get off escaping any harm.

As I go through life and look back, I can say with David in the book of Psalms, “Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.”