My dog has few interests. He likes to snuggle and eat and go for walks. But his favourite thing in the world is his toy bone. One particular brand, soft rubber that smells like bacon. As the bone begins to look threadbare and pulled apart I’ll get a new one. So sometimes he has two at a time. He always prefers the new one.
If you bring a new one home, he can tell. He will whimper in the kitchen cause he knows it’s in the bag of groceries on the counter. If it gets stuck under the couch, he will sit by the couch and harass you until you figure out what he wants. When I come home, after being out running errands, he runs to the door with his bone in his mouth. If he doesn’t have it, he will run around and find it before he greets me.
He loves his bone.
The other night it was almost bed time. It is very cold here, so I wanted to make sure he was in the house. He wasn’t in my son’s room, so I went downstairs and asked the girls and they didn’t know where he was. I looked all over. Finally, I looked in the downstairs TV room. He was sitting in the middle of the dark room staring at the couch. I looked at him and shook my head. Then it dawned on me, so I asked if he had lost his bone. He didn’t respond, cause he’s a dog.
I moved the chair, which had been pushed up against the couch, and there was his bone wedged in the corner. He knew where it was, and he wasn’t leaving that spot until someone helped him get it. He is single-minded in his focus.
That is what we need to do with Jesus. He needs to be our single-minded obsession. We need to search for Him in our life and keep Him close. We need to greet our neighbours, remembering to bring Jesus with us. We need to sit still and watch Him.
This is the lesson my dog taught me this week.
Hebrews 12: 1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not
grow weary and lose heart.
Roberta Writes 