The guilty conscience

Proverbs 21:8~ The way of the guilty is [exceedingly] crooked, But as for the pure, his conduct is upright.

Sunday morning...I awoke to do chores and found the entire pasture herd in my front paddock by the house, which is reserved for our "home herd" or lesson horses.

Some lying down in the shelter, some walking about, others waiting to be fed. But one horse stood out from the herd. Quincy Dan (affectionately known as Danny). He is the oldest gelding we own. The Grandpa of the herd if you will. Know he is known to walk away from you when you come into his pasture as he knows he's going to work, so avoidance is his thing. Expect today. Today, as I walked through the entire herd, he came up to me and stood right in front of me face to face. This is what his body language said:

"Ok, so the pasture herd busted your gate and came in to infiltrate our private "home herd" pen late last night and have taken over the shelter and ate the remaining specks of hay usually reserved for me...and the "home herd" ran away into the big pasture cause it's greener over there (so they think) and I told them you would not be impressed in the morning if they were gone, so that's why I stayed even though I wanted to go with them. I was not party to breaking the gate or running to the greener pastures. I thought you should know".

The story in his eyes of the crooked deeds of the pasture herd and his intention to point out his upright conduct in the night of shenanigans imparted to me how we can sometimes have the tendancy to point out the crooked ways of the guilty in order to be seen as upright in the eyes of the world (or even God) but the scripture says (paraphrase) our behavior in life will be upright if we are pure in heart and obedient towards God.

The "home herd" now resides in the collective body of the "green pasture". Happy, healthy and free to run amok...until lesson time.