“Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord, and teach out of Your law.” Psalm 94:12

Soul Whisperer

I am an animal lover. I suppose you never get over being the girl raised on a farm, feeding the chickens, milking the cows, riding the horses, and running through the woods with the dogs. My knowledge and expertise with animals is somewhat limited, however. 

Unlike myself, there are people on the planet called “whisperers” who have an amazing knowledge of animals, their behavior, and how to train them. Jackson Galaxy is a cat whisperer. Cesar Millan is a dog whisperer. 

Some years ago there was a movie called the “Horse Whisperer” about a real life cowboy named Buck Brannaman. His website says this about him: “Buck Brannaman is one of the world’s leading practitioners of handling horses based on classical concepts from the California vaquero tradition; working with the horse’s nature, using an understanding of how horses think and communicate to train the horse to accept humans and work confidently and responsively with them. One of his stated goals is to make the animal feel safe and secure around humans so that the horse and rider can achieve a true union.”

These men train the animal by understanding how the animal thinks, what the animal is feeling; they are empathetic to its behaviors based on its created nature and instinct. Buck Brannaman thinks like a horse because he understands a horse’s nature. Buck understands how a horse communicates, so he can “hear” that horse. He is connected to the horse and identifies with that horse’s nature in such a way that he can instruct and train. He can make that horse a better horse.

As I read this description I began to think of it as an earthly reflection of a heavenly reality. There is a Whisperer who created us to be who we are in this world. This Whisperer has identified with us so completely that He became one of us. (As good as Mr. Brannaman is, he has never actually become a horse!) This Whisperer understands us like no other. He empathizes with our weaknesses and ill behavior, for He felt those temptations as well, but overcame them and remained sinless (Hebrews 4:15). In Him is wisdom and knowledge and every good thing. He makes you a better you! He makes us a new creation.

And because of Jesus we can now know God and approach Him without fear. We can be confident in God’s love for us. We can respond to Him in assurance of faith. We find our purpose and passion in Him. And what is the purpose of all this? It is that we might attain a true union with our God and Father through Jesus—our soul whisperer. He is training us to be like Him so that we will forever attain that true union He has promised. 

“But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Father, thank You for entering into our world and teaching us how to live confidently and responsively with You. Because of You, we have a bright hope and an astonishing future. Blessed be Your name. Amen.