White Painted Fences

White Painted Fences

I live in the beautiful, picturesque Hunter Valley in Australia. It is a rural area known internationally for it’s fine Australian wines. Our district has thousands of acres of undulating farmland growing grape vines in long, straight rows, pruned and flourishing in rich vibrant green. The Hunter valley is also internationally famous for the breeding and rearing of Thoroughbred horses and most of our country's best racehorses. It is one the of world’s largest horse breeding regions. Acre after acre of white fenced paddocks are the home to noble and elegant horses. There is something uniquely beautiful in the sight of a well groomed horse, prancing, grazing and galloping in all it’s regality. 

I am not a very “horsey” person. I grew up riding my neighbour’s uncooperative shetland pony, legs splayed over it’s ever widening girth. We plodded slowly up and down our street, only at the pace and interest of the pony. Excitement grew as another neighbour bought a real horse. She was a deep, brown mare with a touch of white splashed across her forehead. Her name was Sparky and us kids loved to hang over the wooden rails of the stock fence watching her. I grew to fear Sparky because she had the habit of biting, nipping here and there. However, growing up as all Australians do, I was raised on the bush poetry of Banjo Patterson, who authored the famous poem “The Man From Snowy River”, which told of the escape of a prize winning colt in the late 1800’s which had joined a mob of wild brumbies, and of the daring horseback pursuit though the rough and rugged terrain of Australia’s Snowy River Mountains, to capture the colt. In 1982 the poem became a very famous movie. As a result, even though I wasn’t overly keen on horses and their teeth, I placed on my bucket list of things to do one day, the desire to ride a horse in the Snowy River Mountains. 

My eldest daughter ready for the ride

My youngest daughter excited to go out riding

Several years ago my Snowy River Mountain horse riding wish came to fruition. Our church was camping down at the mountains one hot summer and I had the opportunity to go on a two hour horse trail ride with two of my daughters. My daughters loved horses and they had received some horse riding lessons as they grew. I, however was a bit more hesitant. We listened intently to the instructions, donned our hard, white riding caps, chose our horses and mounted them with enthusiasm. There was a group of about ten of us, some had never ridden and others like me were a little fearful and then there were my daughters, eagerly waiting to set off at a good pace. The Snowy River Mountains were all I had hoped for, thick bushland, steep rugged mountainsides; a beauty found only in Australia. I could picture the brumbies running wild and free and the story of the “Man From Snowy River” being played out around me. Down the precipitous mountain side we rode, leaning back in our saddles, up the arduous terrain, knees pressed close to the horse as we sat forward, feet pushing into the stirrups. The horses were sure footed, confident and moved with the ease of true bush mountain horses. The air was scented with eucalyptus trees, the loud shrieks of sulphur crested cockatoos echoed as they flew overhead and all around was the rugged attractiveness of the Australian bushland.

Our group in the Snowy River Mountains

I survived the horse ride :-)

The Rugged Bushland

Back at the Hunter Valley as I lazily lean against a white painted, wooden stock fence and gaze at the noble horses in the paddock, memories of my ride in the mountains and my inability to walk very well afterwards drift through my mind and I smile. My hands rest on the rough fence and I notice it’s paint work. White fences. Miles of white fences. Behind the fences live the best of Australia’s Thoroughbreds and our most valued race horses, all worth tens of thousands of dollars and more. White painted fences is used in the industry to protect the horses. As they gallop at high speeds during dusk or in the dark, the fences are seen clearly by them. Other fencing can find the horses colliding with them at break neck speeds and being severely injured, their careers in racing ended, maybe even their lives lost. 

God has painted the fences white in our lives. He clearly shows us where the boundaries are between a life in Him, the peace and joy of abiding in Him, and where the separation from Him occurs as we step into a place of emptiness, the “pleasures of sin for a season”, a life without His abiding presence. Will I stay within the white painted fences, or will I careen dangerously close to them, will I longingly look over them or even step over them? The fences are my protection for a rich, fulfilling abundant life of purpose, contentment and inner joy. They are placed there out of love for me. I either have the Son and life or I don’t have the Son and life. I either abide in Christ and He in me or I don’t abide in Him and He is not in me. Either  I know God and have eternal life or I don’t know Him and I don’t have eternal life. Where do I stand today? Within the white painted fences or without? Where do you stand?

Isa 59:2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God

1 John 5:12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life

John 15:5 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 

John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.