As far as dogs go I think mine is pretty bright. Maybe not Ivy League smart but she would definitely be college bound. She rings a little bell to go outside, freaks out when we bring out the suitcases, and can play dead with the best of them. We were out walking the other day. Walking for her is one exquisite pleasure after another. If I ever get to the place where a walk gives me as much joy then I will absolutely have it made. When my dog is at home her invisible fence keeps her out of a lot of trouble. She runs parallel with trucks and barks her little brains out. But when we are out walking I think she gets a little confused. I had her on a leash and it struck me that whenever a truck would go by she would strain and try to get to the truck. My leash is one of those retractable things (great invention)and so whenever a truck was coming I would have to start the process to reel her in and out of danger. Now my dog had no idea I was getting her out of danger. She would look up at me and I was sure she was swearing at me under her breath. She will never know how kind I was to her. It got me thinking about the law of God. The psalmist says, "My delight is in the law of the Lord". Delight is a strong word. I don't know if I have ever looked at the law of the Lord and felt my heart leap. Maybe it is because I am more like my dog than I want to admit. If my dog really knew what I know about a truck traveling at 30 mph she would delight in the retractable leash and my effort to use it. So it is with God and me. I have been reading the Bible differently lately. I read and then I delight and I thank God that he recognizes trucks that I might want to chase. So today, I walk with my dog as my God walks with me. My dog may only delight in the walk but I will delight in the Lord who is at my side and won't let me leave his.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Gracious God!
“We might have learned even from the poets that love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness. Kindness merely as such cares not whether its object becomes good or bad, provided only that it escapes suffering. But if God is love, He is by definition more than mere kindness. He has often rebuked us and He’s often condemned us, but He has never regarded us with contempt. God has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us. We are, therefore, not metaphorically, but in very truth a divine work of art. Now over a sketch made idly to amuse a child an artist may not take much trouble. But over the magnum opus of an artist’s life, the work which the artist loves the most, the artist will take endless trouble and would doubtless thereby give endless trouble to the picture if it were alive. One can imagine an alive picture after being rubbed and scraped and recommenced for the tenth time wishing it were only a thumbnail sketch whose making was over in a minute and not a magnum opus. In the same way it is natural for us to wish that God had designed us for a less glorious and less arduous destiny, but then we are wishing not for more love but for less. You asked for a loving God, you have one. Not a senile, benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way but the consuming fire Himself – the love that made the worlds, persistent as an artist’s love for his work. It is certainly a burden of glory beyond our desserts but also, except in rare moments of grace, beyond our desiring.”– C.S. Lewis (as quoted by the Rev. Tim Keller in a sermon entitled, The Two Great Tests.)
wow. Really good quote. I love the way C.S.Lewis can open my eyes. Thanks for putting that down.
Post a Comment