How Marriage by Design is Built for Victory

How can a horse inspire you? How does the thrill of watching it win touch your soul?

Surprisingly, I experienced a moment like that recently…when I was especially inspired by God’s creation and the thrill of running your race well.

Last Saturday, Jason and I attended a Derby party hosted by the local Women’s Junior Service League.  The same evening, we had arranged for our girls to have a movie night with my parents. I had suggested the movie, Secretariat, for them to view in honor of the Derby. 

We were enjoying the Derby, why not they?

The party was lovely and the weather was pleasant as we gathered with friends to participate in the fundraising and enjoy the Derby.  In the middle of the event, we paused to watch two minutes of adrenaline pumping excitement as 20 of the most toned and highly bred equestrian athletic specimens raced to the finish line. 

What an exciting finish as Mystic Dan, Sierra Leone, and Forever Young had us all on the edge of our seats wondering which winner they’d call in the three-way photo finish! Mystic Dan won by a nose, yet they all completed the race in the same 2:03.34 time.  Amazing!  It was that close!  

The next afternoon, instead of my usual routine, I decided to sit down and rewatch the Secretariat movie for myself.  After all, we had just seen an incredible win, and I was in the mood for a good story!

Although I’d previously seen this telling of Secretariat’s journey from Horse of the Year to record breaking Triple Crown winner, I couldn’t believe what I must have missed in all the previous viewings. 

Perhaps it wasn’t the movie this time.  

No, perhaps it was because this time, I followed up the movie viewing by watching the actual footage of Secretariat’s Triple Crown races and a well-done documentary of his life.  Regardless, I found myself unusually awed and in tears over the magnificence of this animal and his feat.

In 1973, Secretariat, fondly called “Big Red”, won the Triple Crown, an accomplishment only twelve other horses in 150 years have done. It had been a quiet 25 years since one of his predecessors had done so.  

Winning the Triple Crown is a unique victory and assures that particular horse and race team a place in the annals of race history along with a small elite group. Secretariat was there.  

Eleven other horses have been as well.  What makes him spectacular and puts him in a league of his own is that he won all three races with record braking speed.

He broke the track records at all three tracks, and his never before met records still stand today…52 years later.  That means in the 150 years of the Triple Crown races, no other horse has ever won with the speed and time that Secretariat did.  

That’s pretty incredible considering the fact that he won the longest of the three races, the Belmont Stakes, by the largest margin of victory in Belmont history…31 lengths.  One of his fans described his Belmont win… “as if the Lord himself held the reins and just told him to GO!”… yeah, it was like that!

Some would say, “so what”?  All I could say was, “wow”!  Watching the actual footage did something.  It stirred something inside of me.  It was like we were watching greatness. It was like we were watching perfection.

It made me think of our Creator.  What does Secretariat and his victories say about his Creator, our Creator?

I kept coming back to perfection.  Perfection!  Awe and perfection. I was once again reminded that God’s design is sheer perfection. 

We got a glimpse of that design perfection as closely as we could in this fallen world watching Secretariat do what he was designed to do…run, pump, win, and it was awe inspiring.  When you experience that kind of greatness, you can’t help but be touched, changed.  It’s phenomenal.  It’s supernatural.

Those who spoke on behalf of “Big Red” in the documentary described him as a highly responsive, attentive horse and an exemplar Thoroughbred.  He was known for watching airplanes fly overhead and pose for the camera…not the norm. 

There was something spiritual about this being.  Watching him race touched your soul. It certainly touched mine.

It was not natural…yes, it was supernatural!  We were watching the closest thing to horse racing perfection anyone had seen, and it inspired worship in my heart for our awesome Creator. 

If God’s design in a horse is perfect (even though we don’t always see that perfection because of the world’s fallen state) how much more perfect is His design for us and His design in marriage - the very institution that reflects His love for us?

We see imperfection every time we look in the mirror, but that imperfection isn’t by design. It’s because of a fall that occurred 6,000 years ago.  No, God’s design is perfect. It is perfect!  We don’t see it because this fallen state that we’re in has tainted it, it has tainted us.  

We’re not perfect.  No we’re not, but our design…God’s design…is.  The enemy steals from us and what we have, but the original design…what God had in mind when He created you, me, marriage…it’s perfect.

We may experience difficulties in marriage, but it isn’t because marriage by design is faulty, it’s because we are.

But you don’t have to stay there…

Go back to the Designer!  What can He teach you?  What are His ways?  They are good! We can attest to that.

What we’ve found in walking out God’s plan together is marriage by design and in the confines of that design is amazing at every stage of life. It is so, so good, and it took an exceptional racehorse to remind me of that.

Jennifer S. Goins