I enjoyed reading the following story several years ago. It was written in the first person so I assumed the author was writing about his own neighbor’s animals. “Just up the road from my home is a field, with two horses in it. From a distance, each horse looks like any other horse. But if you get a closer look you will notice something quite interesting…One of the horses is blind. His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made him a safe and comfortable barn to live in. This alone is pretty amazing. But if you stand nearby and listen, you will hear the sound of a bell. It is coming from a smaller horse in the field. Attached to the horse’s halter is a small, copper-colored bell. It lets the blind friend know where the other horse is, so he can follow. As you stand and watch these two friends you’ll see that the horse with the bell is always checking on the blind horse, and that the blind horse will listen for the bell and then slowly walk to where the other horse is, trusting he will not be led astray. When the horse with the bell returns to the shelter of the barn each evening, he will stop occasionally to look back, making sure that the blind friend isn’t too far behind to hear the bell. Like the owner of these two horses, God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect, or because we have problems or challenges. He watches over us and even brings others into our lives to help us when we are in need. Sometimes we are the blind horse, being guided by the little ringing bell of those who God places in our lives. And at other times we are the guide horse, helping others to find their way.” (Author Unknown)
We each serve as guides, from time to time, in our lives. My wife and I love being grandparents and even great grandparents many times over. I watched one of our grandsons standing behind his little 14 month old, a few months ago, with little hands in big hands, he was holding him up while he was learning to walk. God has ordained that first we are helped and then we are the helpers. Our eldest son would have been sixty this month of October 2016, had he lived, but unfortunately he passed on prematurely. The other five are close behind, age wise, and as I reminisce about their growing up years their mother and I worried and prayed that they would turn out to be good people. They did, even though there were a few patches of rough times. It had to have been obvious to them that they were loved, because we told them every time they left the house, even now as older adults, as they leave us they will hear, “I love you!” and they will never leave without a hug. We took each child’s hands and helped them to walk, then run and even as they got older, supported them as they become good men and for our daughter, a good woman.
There is a story about a son who took his old father to a restaurant for an evening dinner. The father being very old and weak, while eating, dropped food on his shirt and trousers. Other diners watched him in disgust while his son was calm. After he finished eating, his son who was not at all embarrassed, quietly took him to the wash room, wiped the food particles, removed the stains, combed his hair and fitted his spectacles firmly. When they came out, the entire restaurant was watching them in dead silence, not able to grasp how someone could embarrass themselves publicly like that. The son settled the bill and started walking out with his father. At that time, one of the men amongst the diners called out to the son and asked him, “Don’t you think you have left something behind?”
The son replied, “No sir, I haven’t.” The man retorted, “Yes, you have! You left a lesson for every son and hope for every father.” The restaurant went silent. Moral: To care for those who once cared for us is one of the highest honors. We all know, how our parents cared for us for every little thing. Love them, respect them, and care for them.
We have worn our guiding bells for many years, but as we near our mid eighties, we are starting to hear tinkling bells, with the sound now coming from the direction of our children. We are not hearing verbal warnings and directions yet, like, “Mom (or Dad) have you got your sweater with you, so you will be warm enough when you go out?” Or “Be sure you drive carefully.” But! There is a certain (subtle but sometimes obvious) hovering over us making us feel our roles are starting to be reversed. We are becoming the ones being cared for and our adult children are becoming parental. We can hear a bell tinkling faintly, now—but…I have also wondered if other elderly have noticed the sound of tinkling bells, too, as the roles begin to change??? Is this the pattern, is this the way our Father in Heaven meant it to be? I have wondered, too, if those bells have been tinkling down through the generations as each succeeding generation of children start wearing a bell. Have you heard the bells???