Barbaro
I thought I’d share a thought or two as this busy weekend draws to a close…about a subject I don’t discuss very much.
I AM a sports fan, but I admittedly am not what one would call an “animal lover”. Not that I don’t like animals…some of my dearest friends are devoted owners of animals…and I respect them for that. It’s just that for me, animals are not people, or other surrogates of our families…they’re….well, animals…that’s all. I can still love and value them for that, though.
Anyone who saw the Preakness this weekend saw the very tragic scene of Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro pull up lame during the race. Now Barbaro was an unbeaten thoroughbred who was trying to achieve horse racing’s venerated Triple Crown, and be one of a select few horses to do so.
But more than the fact that Barbaro was a racehorse, he is one of God’s precious creatures. And he was only doing what he was bred to do…which is to run as fast as he can, and possibly sire offspring that would do the same. Yet, to see him suddenly struggle to even move because he had fractured his leg…well, it broke this non-animal lover’s heart. You could tell that Barbaro truly wanted to run, but because his leg had somehow been injured, he just couldn’t. I felt for Barbaro’s jockey and owners, for they surely knew what happened…and their first concern was for the life and safety of the horse…the race was the farthest thing from their minds, as it was from mine. I’m not ashamed to admit I said a silent prayer that Barbaro would be all right, and to see him try to walk in such pain, and to see the looks on the faces of the jockey and his team…well, that hurt.
Later it was revealed that Barbaro’s injuries were severe enough to require a delicate operation to save his life…all of a sudden, the Triple Crown was not that big a deal.
Things like that happen to people all the time…through no fault of their own, something awful happens, and in a blink of an eye, they go from carefree joy to agony, alarm, and worry for their future. Is it fair? No. Not for people…or for horses. And we always ask “why”…as if we would understand it if we were told.
I’m afraid all that can be said is that things just happen…and nothing can be done to prevent them from happening. Yet, God gives all of us the opportunity to learn more about how He works in this world…and when we clue into it, somehow, we’ll be better off for the lesson.
How does that figure in the story of Barbaro? I don’t know how it will for you…but I’m looking forward to how it will affect the way I look at life. Somehow, I think that God’s got an important lesson for me to learn in all this. Maybe that’s why he let my non-animal loving heart get so affected by what I saw on Saturday.
I’ll let you know.
Posted on May 21, 2006 - 08:11 PM | [0]
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