It’s rained here for two days straight (which I LOVE) and there is mud and wetness everywhere. My somewhat neglected plants on the back porch were initially happy about all this rain, but now they lift their little heads up as I walk out on the porch and give me a shaming look as if to say, “Can’t you at least move us out of the direct downpour???”. The rain doesn’t seem to deter Leo The Giant Puppy in the least; actually she seems to thrive in it.
Leo may now be entering her teenage dog years, as she not only won’t mind anything we say, but will give us “the look” when we try to reason with her. She thinks that anytime any vehicle leaves the yard that she is supposed to go along; she won’t actually ride in a vehicle, but will follow close behind, regardless of the speed. She is fast; I mean she’s really fast. So when we leave for any extended period of time (five minutes to several hours), we have to put her in the outside pen. (It’s a big pen with 8 foot sides; she jumped out of it the first few days we had it, so it’s been modified for her specialness.) She is fast. She can jump.
So this rainy morning, My Stanley decided to go to “The Office” to catch up on the latest news with his buddies. (“The Office” is the feed store which caters to hunters and fishermen and retired buddies, anyone who has time on their hands and likes strong coffee.) And of course as he started up our little dirt road, Leo howled and whined and put up an impressive fuss. I finally let her out after there was no chance of her catching up with My Stanley. But she tried. She ran as fast as she could towards the road. I stepped out on the front porch and called her; she stopped immediately, but gave me the teenage stink eye. She just stood there and looked back at me until I made a move, and then she bolted and just kept on running. She knew she was running from me, running towards something that would get her in trouble; she knew she had been warned, yet she chose to keep running as fast as her little legs would carry her.
So I let her run. I knew that as soon as she got to the end of our road she would be met by our son’s geese, who do NOT like to be bothered by dogs with attitude. Leo may be fast, but she’s not fast in thought, and as soon as she met up with the guard geese, she decided that coming back home might not be such a bad idea. Ever have an encounter with a mean goose?
And as I was waiting on the front porch in the misting rain, I thought about how God must feel when I run out of His protective care. I’m every bit as bad as Leo. I’ll get something on my mind that I just can’t lay aside, and run towards my immediate desire. I’ll stop when I hear the Lord calling to me; sometimes I’ll come back and seek His forgiveness, but many times I’ve just kept on running until I got into such trouble that I had no other option but to turn around and go back home. I would be spared so much heartache if I would only just seek God’s will and then listen for that still small voice instead of running off on my own agenda. But you know what? He always welcomes me back with open arms of love. Running off comes with consequences, but there is no consequence so great that God cannot see us through.
It’s raining hard now. I’m inside the shelter of my cozy home. I’m in my happy place. Why in the world would I ever want to run off?
Why would we ever want to run from the shelter of God’s loving arms?
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