If you had traveled through Fort Benton, Montana, a few years ago, you might have seen a shepherd dog pacing up and down the station platform. If you had asked any of the trainmen about “Old Shep,” as he was called, they would have told you that the dog had met every train for three years.
Old Shep was once owned by a man who went to Montana looking for relief from a dreaded disease. The man took a job herding sheep and he needed a good dog. A shepherd gave him the dog, at that time a puppy, and lent him an older dog to teach the young one to watch the sheep during the day and round them up at night.
The young dog soon learned to handle sheep without the aid of the older dog. But as time went on, disease took the life of the dog’s master. The people of the community saw that the body of the herder was sent back to his old home in an eastern state. The dog followed the body of his master to the railway station and saw it loaded on the train.
The faithful dog remained at the station, meeting every train — day and night — in the hope that the next train would return his master to him. He refused to make up with anyone and was seldom seen except at train time. After each train had departed, he would crawl back under the station to patiently await the next train. The section foreman tried to coax the dog to stay in the section house but the dog refused to leave the spot where he last saw his master.
We can learn a lesson from Old Shep. He was faithful to his master who had died. Those of us who know the Lord Jesus as our own Saviour and Master can seek to be faithful to Him who has died for us, but who has risen again and gone back to heaven. We should be looking for His coming again for He has promised: “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:33And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:3).
ML 06/23/1968