Pig in a Poke

I was six. Everything that ever happened to me happened when I was six. Excitement was tasted and heard and seen. My father had driven the Chevy into the backyard and backed it up to the gate. The tailgate was down and all was ready to guide the my brother's pig into the truck for the trip to the fairgrounds. Swine kind are very intelligent. They know when feeding time is and they know your voice when you call. The down side is they know when you are trying to trick or force them into a situation they do not approve of. Such was the case here.

My father was guiding the pig with a piece of plywood toward the gate. My brother was assisting and getting ready to help shove the pig up into the truck. Me? I was "helping" by standing in the gap between the edge of the lowered tailgate and the fence post by the gate. Six years old, forty-five pounds and ready for action.

The pig saw three choices: 1)get into the back of that truck.(The same truck in which he had arrived to the farm in a burlap sack) 2)try to turn around for the fiftieth time and try to push past the plywood.(splinters, no good) 3)plow through the skinny kid to freedom.(Hmmm! I got one-hundred and forty pounds on that little one.) To freedom he went. In a flash was riding bareback and backwards, a miniature bucking bronco underneath me. The excitement was gone, in its' place dread and terror. The crying didn't start until I hit the ground, grass stains covering my clothes and skin. I do not recall what happened to the pig, but I remember I was six.

Standing in the breach is not a position for the weak in body or the weak in mind. Standing in the breach is painful and hurts, but if God has placed you in the breach He will give you what you need to do the job. He knows what is going on, even when we do not.

The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice. And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.(Ezekiel 22:29-30)