This is a place where many adventures took place during my childhood. After I overcame my fear, I greatly enjoyed our horses. Jeneen and I were able to see the corrals this week. The pond in the background also holds memories. There were fish, ducks, and willows for fort building. Trying to raise the water level by throwing rocks in the creek leaving the pond gave hours of fun. Pitching hay into the trough to feed the horses, trying to catch them when they didn’t want to be caught, once apprehended, enjoying the bareback ride up the hill to the corral with just a belt around the neck of the animal, and then saddling up for rides around the area.
To look at the place now, no one would know all the events that took place there. It is a forgotten scene. As we travel the west, we see many such structures; buildings, abandoned cabins, barns, and corrals. These places were the homes, dreams of people, some recent but others, many years ago. There were battles with the elements, struggles with animals, and troubles with each other. There were times of joy and pain. Plans were made and carried out. Times have passed and people moved away or entered eternity. Others took their place, not having the same desires or dreams, abandoning the structures and life built before they arrived, carrying out their own plans and hopes.
We have one life to live on this earth. What will last? Too often we focus on the temporal, thinking it is the most important. Learn from history, learn from observation, and see the dilapidated structures of forgotten lives. We work hard and rightly so. We labor and we can enjoy the fruits of that labor. Ecclesiastes teaches that this is the gift of God to us. But that which matters most in this life is that which is done for eternity. Daily labor with plans and dreams for life on the earth is good and the walk with God, seeking Him, and knowing Him, to be with Him forever is eternally valuable.
“So shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Monte Leavell 