Teaching..and learning... Compassion

 http://inhonoroftheking.blogspot.com/2012/03/through-trudys-eyes-her-rescue.html    

I first told you about Trudy over a year ago.  She has survived horrific abuse at the hands of people. ..abuse that never would have happened if that person had ANY compassion.  Compassion.

1. Compassion- a feeling of deep sympathy or sorrow for another who is stricken with misfortune, accompanied by the strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

   
   

   I want my children to have compassion and I think an easy way to start is to build a compassion towards those who have no ability to give anything... no ability to help themselves... animals.   I hope that compassion towards animals would easily bloom into compassion towards people, made in God's image.  

 It amazes me the example of compassion my children have been able to see from people and animals at Save The Horses.  Sweetie is an old mare that guards Trudy, the blind horse, from other horses that might bite her because she can't see their body language and can't retreat from their challenges of dominance.   So, Sweetie, the old Madea of the Horse recue, keeps all the other horses straight.  She even follows and protects Trudy when Trudy is led out on walks... (See photo above).





Some might think that  Trudy isn't beautiful as one of her eyes turned cancerous and had to be removed...but I truly think she is beautiful...

So does John-Michael.... He loves her.....  She is his favorite... 

So what do you think of Trudy??  Oh, that face!

Now, Albert.... his is a 12 year old Nubian goat who weights 280 pounds.  He has been at the rescue for 11 years.  On December 4th, he was found  laying on the shavings 'star gazing'..and unable to get up.   He was loaded in a trailer and taken to the Animal hospital at University of GA .  The doctors reported that Albert most likely Goat Polio which is thiamine deficiency.  He spent a week there.  .... but he still was unable to get up.  The volunteers at the rescue brought him back to Save The Horses and now, Albert gets thiamine  3 times a day,  sublingual B12, oregano oil on his skin,  homeopathic remedy daily, goat drench daily, drinking PH water called Kangen water, turmeric, Reike 2 times a week and Bowen therapy.  The rescue get him up with a sling. He has strong back legs but weak front. He hasn't stood for 15 days....but we aren't willing to give up.

Peebles (to the left)  missed Albert  .   My children and I  go help Albert twice a week.  Some might say why waste your time on a goat.  ..Why?  Because we see value in all of God's creation.  We think compassion in action is clearly stated in the Bible.  Jesus showed that he had compassion.. Matthew 9:.³⁵ Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Matthew 14 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

2 Corinthians ..

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. ⁵ For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. ⁶ If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. ⁷ And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

Collisions 3 ¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

The gospel is the ultimate in compassion. In His word, we see the Father designed a world for us.... only to have us sin against Him. Yet, He pursues us and brings all who believe in Jesus in to a right relationship with God through the shed blood of Jesus. That is compassion; when someone who knew no sin, became sin for us and died on a cross so that we could have life eternal with God!  Our Compassionate Father!

( 2 Corinthians 15)    Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin^[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

In case you don't think the Lord, compassion extends to animals.  I would say consider just two of many verses... Proverbs  12:10...A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal,
but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. 
Psalm 50: 10  for every animal of the forest is mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills. ¹¹ I know every bird in the mountains,
and the creatures of the field are mine.

Psalm 36    Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens;

your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.
⁶ Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your justice like the ocean depths.
You care for people and animals alike, O Lord.
⁷ How precious is your unfailing love, O God!
All humanity finds shelter
in the shadow of your wings.

Ephesians 5:1 tells us to be imitators of God...so we must long for Compassion.