Hobukooli
Near the village of Mäo in Estonia, there’s a wonderful rehabilitation centre called Hobukooli Park. There horses and donkeys heal traumatised children and young people in ways that we can only partly understand. There’s even a Jerusalem donkey with a cross of dark hair on her back. I’ve watched a six-year old child ride one of the horses, not sitting on a saddle but lying in complete trust on the horse’s bare back. That child is an adult now and working with horses herself.
Like Estonians, the Galileans of Jesus’ time didn’t have a future tense. They made no difference in grammar between saying that Jesus will come and that Jesus is coming now. So everything we need to know about the promised Second Coming of Christ is already here in his first coming. When he comes again we’ll recognise him, because he’s already come to us, riding on a donkey that had never been ridden before. And he comes, not to break us, not even to tame us, but to heal us. He lays his gentle hand on us. He walks beside us at our own speed. And he loves us in our individuality, in our differences, in our creative mutations. He loves us even in our mistakes. And under the redeeming love of Christ, even our sin can serve God’s loving purposes.
Fr Stiiv Knowers (Tallinn) – 30 November 2025
