Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Zanger and their children lived on a farm in California. They had to leave the farm and move to Kansas. They had a dog named Missy which they all loved, but Mr. Zanger explained to the children that they could not afford to keep Missy any longer. Leaving the dog with a kind neighbor, the Zanger family drove away one morning.
At first Missy refused to stay with her new owner, returning each night to the empty Zanger farmhouse. Finally, after a week of disappointed waiting, the dog disappeared.
Ten months passed. The Zangers were now settled in their new home in Kansas where the father had gotten a job. But even though the parents had said they could now afford to have a dog, the children still loved Missy and refused to get another dog.
One day, as the youngest boy was walking home from school, a dirty-looking dog came rushing toward him. The little boy was frightened by the scraggly, skinny animal bounding toward him. He turned to run, but the dog was jumping up on him with her tail wagging and her tongue kissing him all over his face! It was Missy, who somehow had traveled more than 1,500 miles from California to Kansas! The story of her ten-month journey will never be known, but Missy had searched until she found her “family.”
What a story about the devotion of a dog to the family she loved! Surely, it was love that carried her on and on, over those endless miles, until she found herself “home” at last. She found the “home” which she searched for in the midst of her family circle, loved and cared for by the children especially. But as happy as Missy was to be home, the happiness of the children in having her home was greater.
Well, this happy picture makes us think of the more wonderful story of a much longer journey, and of a much greater love. The Lord Jesus Christ left His home in heaven and came down to this world to find and save lost sinners, so that He might have them in heaven with Himself. But how different His welcome was from Missy’s! Except for a few poor people whose hearts God had prepared to receive Him, there was no welcome for Him in this sin-filled world. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” John 1:1111He came unto his own, and his own received him not. (John 1:11). He had to say, “They have rewarded Me evil for good, and hatred for My love.” Psalms 109:55And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love. (Psalm 109:5).
But the Father who sent Him loves us anyway, even though there was no love in our hearts for His Son. He is going to fill heaven with those who accept His Son, the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. It was on the cross that the Lord Jesus suffered the punishment for all those who believe in Him. His blood shed there washes all our sins away. We will be welcome in heaven, because of what the Lord Jesus has done for us.
Now, those of us who know Him as our Saviour are all on a journey traveling on to eternity to be united with loved ones gone before, to be forever with Jesus in the love and happiness of His home.
But for those who won’t have the Saviour and refuse His love, to leave this world will be to pass into the darkness, misery and despair of hell, where there will be no love or comfort of friends — only “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 8:1212But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 8:12).
ML-03/27/1988