by M. R. Wells
Consider This:
Have you ever gotten a spiritual insight from a pet or child? What was it? How did it impact your life? How might you need to become more like a little child to walk more closely with God?
All Her Children
Trust Takes Time
Trust is letting go of needing to know all
the details before you open your heart.
ANONYMOUS
Becky knew a stray dog was living in the orchard across the road from her house. She watched the dog on her way back and forth from work. From time to time, she would see people try to lure the animal, but the stray would not be beckoned.
This went on for about a year. One day Becky threw some old muffins into the alfalfa field, thinking the birds would eat them. The next morning she looked out to see the stray dog eating the muffins. And that’s where the real story begins.
It became Becky’s mission to get this homeless canine to trust her. She took food out to the edge of her yard and left it for the dog. The animal eyed her very cautiously, and would not approach the food until Becky walked some distance away. But as the weeks passed, this dog began to trust her kind human friend a bit more. Becky didn’t have to walk so far away for the dog to start eating. It took about two months, but finally the dog let Becky get close enough to pet her. This was how Becky discovered a tick and an infected cut on the dog’s side. The dog let Becky clean her up and put medication on her wound. As her trust continued to grow, Becky’s new canine pal started sleeping on her back porch. Becky named the dog Bonnie.
As their friendship grew, so did Bonnie’s body. It was evident that she was pregnant as she began to take on “the look.” At this point, she was still disappearing and showing up again. Suddenly, one day, Bonnie showed up skinny.
Becky asked Bonnie where the puppies were. To her amazement, Bonnie headed out to the fenced-in back lot. She crawled under a hole in the fence where Becky couldn’t go. Becky told Bonnie she was going back to the house to get the key to the gate. Bonnie crawled back through the fence hole and accompanied her human.
After Becky opened the gate, Bonnie led her to an old boxcar from a train. It was being used for storage. Bonnie had dug a hole under the boxcar. That’s where the puppies were.
It was remarkable. A few months before, this dog wouldn’t come near Becky. Now she was leading Becky to her puppies! Becky got down on her stomach in the dirt and started fishing them out one paw or tail at a time. Eleven puppies later, she had the whole litter. She stuffed them all into her shirt and carried them to the safety of her back porch where she could supervise them more closely. They lived in a plastic swimming pool until they were big enough to roam the yard. Becky found homes for ten of them and kept Bonnie and her cutest puppy, Tess. The more Bonnie trusted her human, the more Becky could offer her. Their relationship grew into a wonderful bond. In fact, Bonnie would not leave Becky’s side. She even slept next to her human’s bed at night.
Becky’s relationship with Bonnie taught her several great lessons about her relationship with God.
First, Becky was watching Bonnie and was concerned for her well-being even before the dog was aware of her. God had His eyes on us even when we were not yet aware of Him.
Second, Bonnie’s trust was shaky. She ate and ran away again. Still, every time she returned, Becky welcomed her. God continues to love and welcome those who come to Him with shaky trust and don’t yet understand what an intimate relationship with Him holds.
Third, Becky was patient with Bonnie’s fears. It took time for Bonnie to come close enough for Becky to remove the tick and treat her wound. God waits patiently for us to allow intimacy with Him so that He can bind up our wounds and remove the things that torment us.
Finally, by the time Bonnie’s puppies were born, she was willing to trust these most precious possessions to her human. Becky gathered the puppies up and protected them better than Bonnie could. Even though it is ever so hard to release our children to the Lord, He knows how to protect them and grow them up far better than we do. But it is only through getting to know who He really is that we can trust Him enough to place their lives in His hands.
Bottom line: God gave Becky a glimpse of His patience with us and showed her why He wants us to be intimate with Him. She realized that the better we get to know God, the more He can give us.
Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). But, like Bonnie, we must allow it. Becky shared that during this time, God began teaching her how very much like stray dogs we are in our relationship with Him. He has so much to offer us, but fear keeps us at a distance. We come in just close enough to snatch up the scraps of the abundant life and run away again.
Or we may be like a friend of mine who is still spiritually searching. He reads everything he can find on different religions but can’t seem to accept that Jesus is the truth he’s been seeking. He rummages the orchard of life, hoping to score a few old muffins, when he could be feasting on a wonderful relationship with Christ.
Proverbs 18:24 says, “There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Jesus wants to be such a friend to us. Will you let Him draw you close so He can touch and heal you?
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation (Psalm 13:5).
Consider This:
Are you still rummaging the orchard of life to score a few old muffins, or are you in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ? What “ticks” has He removed? What wounds has He bound up? How does that encourage you to trust Him even more and put what’s most precious to you in His hands?
Driving on Faith
What It Takes to Find the One
In faith there is enough light for those who want to
believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.
BLAISE PASCAL
Daniel’s beloved Australian cattle dog mix (mixed with what he didn’t know) recently passed away. Hannah had been a part of Daniel’s family for 14 years. He was only six when they adopted her, so it’s hard for Daniel to remember a time when Hannah wasn’t there. If dogs were judged by their resumes, Hannah’s wouldn’t be exceptional. While she did come when called, she resisted learning tricks, not even mastering Basic Ball Fetching 101. But Hannah was unfailingly loyal to Daniel and his family. She loved them and they loved her. That made her the best dog in the world.
It was devastating when Hannah contracted Lyme disease from a tick bite, destroying the nerves in her legs. Daniel dreaded putting her down. He remembers cradling her face in his hands before he left for work that fateful morning and when he returned, she was just gone.
Hannah was greatly missed. The house was too quiet. No more tip-tap-tipping of her paws scampering over the hardwood floors. They missed her familiar bark, even her doggie smell. Daniel, like the rest of his family, felt a dog-shaped hole in his life.
The family decided it was an emptiness that needed to be filled. The only question was—how? In a world with millions and millions of dogs, how does one find the right dog? A dog who could possibly take Hannah’s place?
Daniel’s family found Hannah by making weekly visits to the local Humane Society. Now, they could search for dogs on the Internet. The good news was, there were hundreds if not thousands of dogs to choose from without leaving the comfort of their living room. The bad news was, there were hundreds if not thousands of dogs to choose from. This led to a paralysis of indecision. They had to narrow the search. Everyone agreed on a puppy. Cute. Little. A fresh start.
As to the breed, Daniel’s mom insisted on a mutt because she’d heard they generally live longer and are less susceptible to disease. She also wanted a girl.
The narrowing process continued. No hard-to-manage long hair that would shed everywhere. Not too big or too small. Nothing that could be mistaken for a horse…or a rat. The family researched the traits of various breeds. An easy-going disposition was a must. No high-maintenance diva dogs need apply.
; It was hard work assembling this wish list, but even harder trying to find this pup. The family scoured online rescue sites like desperate singles in search of a soul mate. No matches. Then it occurred to Daniel that he and his brother would soon be away at college. How would a lone puppy keep itself occupied while Dad was at work and Mom was out running errands? Daniel insisted they get two dogs to keep each other company. His mom wasn’t thrilled with double dog duty, but reluctantly agreed—with the stipulation that the duo be a boy and a girl. She believed two of the same sex would be hostile to each other.
So, two puppies who met all the specs, who would get along with each other and the family—impossible! But nothing’s impossible with God, right? Eventually, a promising prospect arose: a big litter of Australian shepherd/Jack Russell terrier mixes. There was only one problem: the dogs were in North Carolina and Daniel and his family lived in Maryland—400 miles and a seven-hour drive away.
The puppy hunters weighed the options. That much time and energy just to get a pair of dogs? It would be an overnight trip with costly gas and hotel fees. And what if, when the family finally got there, they were the wrong puppies? Their photos were cute and the owner swore they were adorable little beasts. But used car salesmen and purveyors of puppies have been known to bend the truth. What if these pups were lemons? What if the seller was hoping to unload them on a desperate out-of-town family who had just driven seven hours and spent the night in a hotel? How could they not feel obligated to buy ’em?
Doubt-ridden, Daniel went back to the Internet. Surely, there must be a brother/sister set of puppies that met their criteria closer to home. But there wasn’t. They discussed lowering their standards. Big longhairs? Two males? But this wasn’t a decision to take lightly. Not just any Spot, Shep, or Fido could fill the Grand Canyon in their hearts left by Hannah.
Daniel searched obsessively until he developed a bad case of online-dog-profile-phobia. He was in despair the right dogs would ever turn up. It was time to give up—or get going to North Carolina.
The family loaded up the van and took a drive of faith down south. Expectations and worries were running high. Four hundred miles, seven hours, and one hotel later they met the puppies.
They were just as advertised. Active but not too rambunctious. Friendly and loving. Short-haired, not too big, not too small. The family named the girl Panda because she was white with black spots around her eyes. They named the boy Bear because he was black and…looked like a bear. They thought it would be fun to yell “Panda Bear!” and have both puppies come running.
Panda and Bear are being housebroken. Getting shots. Learning tricks. The house is no longer silent. Eight different paws tip-tap-tip on the floors. Barking fills the air—lots of it. Now at college, Daniel’s pleased to hear the dogs are great pals and play happily in the backyard.
As to that Hannah-shaped hole in their hearts? Panda and Bear didn’t fill that hole like cookie-cut forms. But they have become a part of this family in their own way. In doing so, they are the fulfillment of all the criteria Daniel and his family hoped for.
They are also an illustration of a thing called faith.
Hebrews 11:1 (NIrV) says faith is “being sure of what we hope for. It is being certain of what we do not see.” Without faith, Daniel and his family would not have left the comfort of their living room to take that seven-hour drive from Maryland to North Carolina. This family of puppy seekers hoped in these two puppies without actually seeing them. They studied the puppies’ pixelated images, read about them, and spoke with the owner on the phone. But without taking that drive of faith, those hoped-for puppies would never have become real to them as their own precious dogs.
Those seeking the Messiah also had a lot of specific criteria. In fact, there are over 300 Old Testament prophecies that pointed the way to the coming Savior. Here are just a few. It had to be a man from the line of David. Born in a not too big, not too small town called Bethlehem. Oh, yes. And one more thing.
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
Yikes! His mother had to be…a virgin.
Now if that doesn’t make the One hard to find, what does? Can you imagine the stress it would have caused Daniel’s family if they’d added “puppies born of a virgin” to their wish list?
It takes a bit more faith to find an immaculately conceived human than a couple of short-haired puppies that don’t shed much. I mean, how does one actually find a perfect man who never sinned, who is the Son of God, who died and rose again from the dead, who can fill that eternity of emptiness in your broken heart and save you from eternal death and give you the gift of eternal life? Where do you find Someone like that? You can read about Him in the Bible, listen to His words on your MP3 player, hear sermons about Him, and get down on your knees and pray to this invisible God. But you can’t see Him with your own eyes. You can’t look out your back window and see your next-door neighbor Jesus walking across His swimming pool or rebuking a fig tree, causing it to instantly shrivel up and die.
So if you can’t see Jesus, He’s not real, right?
Not unless you take that drive of faith.
Unless you are willing to take a leap of faith and believe He’s as real as Panda and Bear, you will never have an actual relationship with Him. And you may miss out on the greatest blessing ever bestowed on mankind: knowing God’s love for sure.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:6).
Consider This:
Do you believe that Jesus exists? If so, how has your life changed since He filled that God-shaped hole? If not, have you checked out the Bible to learn about the One? Would you consider taking a drive of faith to find out whether He is as advertised?
Trust and Be on TV
God Has a Role for You
Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.
ARISTOTLE
Like so many other folks, I love dogs. I have dogs that I call my friends in several cities. They know me and run up to me so I can hug them when I see them. But there is a dog I adore that I have never actually met. He is a television star. His character name is Levi and he plays on an old television series called Sue Thomas, F.B. Eye. Sue is deaf, so Levi alerts her to important sounds in her world. He has been trained to help in this way, just like Seeing Eye dogs are trained to help the blind.
The dog Levi’s real name is Jesse. When the show’s creators were just starting to cast, Jesse came to audition for them in Thousand Oaks, California. The creators fell in love with Jesse right away and hired him. He could do practically anything. If he was asked to do a new trick, his trainer and master, Bryan, would work with him just a little, and he’d catch on.
It was easy to see that Jesse loved his master and would do anything to please him. Bryan liked it when the writers would put little bits in the script to show off Jesse’s skills. For example, Bryan taught Jesse to touch the elevator button with his nose or paw by putting a piece of a treat in the button. Sue would tell Levi which floor they wanted, and he would touch the appropriate button with his nose or paw. This would make everyone in the elevator smile—Levi included.
When Deanne, the actress who played Sue, first met Jesse, she fell in love with him too. But she was concerned about how he’d be treated as a working animal. She didn’t yet know Bryan. When she saw Bryan lying with Jesse on the studio floor between takes, she realized Jesse was loved and well cared for.
Joan Johnson, the writer and creative consultant, also remembers seeing Bryan and Jesse lying together. It was several years later, at the end of shooting the show. Bryan was stretched out on the floor with Jesse’s head resting on his chest. Jesse was breathing more heavily now because he was older and had cancer. But the two of them rested peacefully together—dog and master.
Joan described Bryan as a
tough guy. He was a stunt man, motorcyclist, and the alpha dog in his relationship with Jesse. But Jesse also knew Bryan loved him with all his heart, and the dog would do anything for his master. If Bryan was out of his sight, Jesse would turn his head to look for him. Though Bryan was tough, he was also very sweet, kind, and loyal. Jesse knew this and seemed to love Bryan with all his heart, mind, and spirit.
My Master is also strong and tough. He is not my alpha dog. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. When He tells me to do something, I wish I could say that I immediately jump up and do it. But I am not as obedient as Jesse. Sometimes it takes me longer to listen or act on my Master’s commands.
This morning I took my father-in-law to the doctor’s office. My mother-in-law comes along, so I usually don’t go into the office. But today, I felt the Lord leading me to walk with them to the waiting room. This time I obeyed without hesitation. We sat down and had a nice chat. When his name was called, my in-laws both went into the examining room and I stayed behind.
Just as I was wondering why God had sent me there, I heard the voice of a dear old friend. I hadn’t noticed she was sitting across the room. I walked over and we hugged and shared news of our families. I met her daughter and granddaughter. I had not seen this friend for several years, and during that time she’d developed cancer. She told me she’d decided to stop her chemotherapy. She said she didn’t know how long she had on earth, but God was in charge. Through the sadness we found time to reminisce about some of our fun times with Moms in Touch and Youth for Christ, where we had both served as volunteers. If I had not obeyed my Master, I would not have had this precious, and perhaps final, visit with this dear old friend.
Back in Bible times, God asked Noah to play a starring role on the stage of history. He asked Noah to build an ark and put two of every living thing inside, along with himself and his whole family. The rains were coming to destroy the earth. Noah loved God, and he obeyed…even though the people around him didn’t think the flood would ever happen. But God was as good as His word. The rains came. The ark floated. And when the waters receded, Noah and his family were safe and healthy.