Dismantling

When I got home from Colorado, I was sad to see that the lovely horse farm behind our house was being dismantled.

This horse farm consisted of a fairly old bungalow house, a riding stable and a pretty new cedar barn.  At its height, about 12 horses boarded and I would sit in my chair where I spend time with Jesus staring out the window to watch the horses nuzzle one another, trott around, bang at the riding stable at feeding time, and lay down in the mud (not the best site!). 

The funniest thing that took place was last summer one of the horses figured out how to get the apples out of our apple tree.  He would jump up on his hind legs, and suddenly this horse head would be over our fence as he grabbed an apple.  It was quite the site and always gave us a bit of a jolt.  Horses have really big heads!

I am going to miss my friends and the joy they gave me.

It's hard to get excited about yet another housing development being built behind us, even right up to our back fence.  But, I guess since we moved into a new house that others probably felt that way about our land being cleared.

The part that is hardest to swallow, however, is the perfectly good buildings that are being ripped down by wrecking balls.  I watched the other day as the very new barn was taken down wall by wall.  All of it was thrown into a junk pile to be hauled away to a dump. 

Today, the wrecking ball is dismantling a house.  I was prompted to walk down this lane a few weeks ago and these two houses had full signs of life in them.  Cars were in the driveways, Christmas lights still hung on the trees, bikes were out, and the trashcans held trash.

I keep wondering what it would be like to know that I had sold my house, only to have it torn down.  What about all the memories that it holds?  What would I think about all the homeless as I sold out my house for just more money?

Dismantling.  It's a hard word to swallow.  It's not easy to take, no matter what it is, and even what condition it is.  I am glad that the Lord doesn't dismantle us because we get too old or the newer model is more exciting.