I looked up and there beside my barn stood two large horses eating grass like they were starving.  I recognized them as my neighbor’s horses, so I went out in the field to see if I could turn them around and head them back to his property. As I approached they moved off a little, but not backward.  I raised my hands and tried to cut off their progress, but they just ran around me making my objective even more difficult.

There had been much tension between us and this neighbor.  He was angry that we would not sell him some of our land and he was disappointed with his own survey results of his property.  For our part, we wanted peace and continued to be congenial and forgive his bad behavior, out of reverence and obedience to Yeshua.  I took a picture of his horses behind my house and texted it to him.  He responded that he was leaving and would be there shortly.  I went back to my business and ignored the horses.  About five minutes later I saw the horses look up toward their property and immediately started walking directly back the way they came.  I stopped what I was doing, thinking they must have seen their owner or he called them.  I followed them down the path, but they were moving too fast to catch up.  When I reached the property line, I saw my neighbor just arriving in his truck.  The two horses had already went back into their fenced and gated field.  By the time I reached my neighbor, he had shut the gate.  I said, “I’m glad I sent you a picture, it seems they went back here own their own.”  He responded, “Oh, they opened the gate, they figured out how to do it themselves.”  He mention that someone told him where we went to Church and that they had gone there years ago and left when the former preacher had passed away.  We talked for a while about church and what he and I were doing.  I asked about a massive pile (probably 30+ truck loads), of rock and dirt.  He said he had stopped them from coming anymore and was going to push it all in a ravine.  I asked if I could get some of the dirt with my tractor to fill in a few holes.  He replied, “Get all you want.”  I said that I would be glad to see him at church if they returned.  I left feeling very relieved that we had a friendly conversation and there seemed to be no animus between us.  Also, I really needed some fill dirt.  I got the dirt and rock later and mailed him a gift card as a thank you.  He responded with a very nice note saying that he appreciated the card.

Looking back, what happened?  God caused two horses who were very well fed in a field of tall green grass and hay to bring me and my neighbor together.  God’s purpose was to restore what the enemy had torn down, to remove any angst or ill will the enemy had planted.  He did this because He is merciful and compassionate.  He gave me favor by supplying some fill dirt and he responded to the forgiveness that we offered our neighbor by restoring the relationship. What a marvelous and wonderful God we serve.  Glory, praise, and honor be to His Holy name.