Musings: 6/19/08; Dog Gone. by JAH

Yep! My dog's gone, and I miss him. He is just two years four months old, weighs 70 pounds, has had all of his shots, has Frontline Flea and Tick protection, and is up-to-date on his Rabies and Parvovirus immunizations. He answers to "Runt." He was the runt of the litter, so that's what my wife named him. He looks like his mother for the most part. She is a Lab, but he has a lot of his father's qualities. He was a Blue Heeler.

Runt is a regular part of our family, and the backyard is his domain. It's a big backyard, but it has never satisfied him. He always wants to be out and about. He wants to visit other dogs whenever he can. He has a wonderful disposition. He's never met a stranger, never picked a fight with other dogs, wouldn't hurt my neighbors chickens, or cats, or the squirrels that scold him from our trees.

He's clumsy, and he has hurt me on more than one occasion. In fact, I spent a lot on medications the times he ran into my leg, accidentally bit my hand or made long scratches on my arms. He can jump higher than my six-foot head, and one of his favorite games is chase water spouting from a garden hose.

I miss him, and I'll continue to miss him for a long time, I'm sure, but that's not what is important to me at this moment. I've asked God to give him a good home, and that's important to me. Another thing of importance is observing a comparison to people in this situation.

God made us. He nurtures and sustains us. He provides for our comfort, and showers us with His love, but like Runt, we aren't generally content where we are, doing what we are doing, being what God made us. We want more! We want to be out and around visiting other people we admire and whom we think may just be blessed more than we are. That's what frequently gets us in trouble. All of us have the opportunity to be with our Master, our Father, our Maker, but many of us can be tolled away to enjoy God's creation rather than to stay with our Creator.

Runt frolicked away with a couple of his friends. They came back. He didn't. A neighbor told us someone had been stealing dogs in the area, and we think that someone may have been able to pick Runt up because he thought everyone was his friend.

It's too bad so many human beings leave this world without ever taking heed to the Good News of Jesus! They seem to accept all the good things God provided for them as a matter of course, and they are blind to their loss. Some do return to Jesus like the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11ff. They heed His call when He says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28 - 30). In Luke 15, Jesus gave a parable about a woman losing a coin. In verse 9 she called her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her because she had found her coin. In verse10 Jesus says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

All too many who wander away are captured by Satan, and they become slaves where their burdens becomes heavier and last forever. Jesus quoted from the last verse of Isaiah in Mark 9:47,48, "It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'" I wish everyone could see that death does not end it all! It is definite, both Heaven and Hell are eternal in nature!