Just Like the Dog

Today, Jon called me and asked me to hurry and come help him because his dog, Sable had slipped out of her collar and had run off.  Jon lives on a busy road and he is blind.  I rushed to his house and as soon as I was pulling into the driveway, I saw Sable a block down the street, very close to the busy road.  I called her and she ignored me.  I threw the car into park and grabbed the collar and leash from Jon.  As I called her name, Sable ran away from me.  This time she ran right into the road, and thankfully, the cars missed her.  She took off through some yards and each time I got closer, she ran some more.  Finally, many blocks and roads away, she let me grab her and put her collar and leash on.  When we got to the house, I yelled at her and told her she was a bad girl and needed to go to her bed and lay down.

Instead, she kept coming to me, expecting me to love on her.  I told her she was a bad girl and to go lay down.  She stuck her nose into my face and her look said, “tell me that you love me!”  But I was angry at her and didn’t want to forgive her for scaring me so much.  Those sweet, adoring eyes got to me, and I gave in.  After about a half hour of her licking and kissing me (and bugging me non-stop while I was trying to watch a movie), she finally went off, satisfied that I did still love her.

But then I heard her getting into something.  When I ran to the bedroom, she had found a box of chocolate covered raisins that Jon had since CHRISTMAS!  I don’t know how many she ate – but both chocolate and raisins are toxic for dogs.  I pray she will be fine through the night.

This started me thinking about how much I am just like Sable.  I go and do the exact thing I know I shouldn’t and then want God to show me that He still loves me.  And He does, yet often within minutes, I go and do something else that is toxic to my well-being.  As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 7:15 “I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”  And 7:19 – “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.”  Yep!  Just like the dog – she knows she shouldn’t run away and into the street.  She shouldn’t eat foods that are toxic and will kill her, but she does it anyway. 

As soon as things are back to normal, we want to know – am I still loved?  Did I stray too far this time?  I don’t know why we do those things we know we shouldn’t.  but I do know that we have a loving Father who will, with wide-open arms, receive us back each and every time!