“Rafa, stop! Stop! Come back!” I yelled as he ran away from me down the long road at the entrance of the park.
I had borrowed a big pickup truck and had stuck Rafa, my small Shetland Sheepdog in the bed of the truck with a cap over it. My two sons, Arvids and Johnny, also came along with me. We drove for about 15 minutes, making many turns as we went. Rafa wasn’t big enough to look over the sides of the truck and out the windows to see where we were going.
I didn’t realize how much the new experience of being jostled around in the back of the bouncy pickup truck had upset Rafa. But I was about to find out.
It was a gray winter day with low-hanging clouds. The part of the park we drove to was mostly grasslands left in their natural state. I parked beside the road. Opening the tailgate of the truck, I lifted Rafa out and set him on the ground. I let go of him for a second to grab his leash, and that little dog took off running down the road. I called out to him to stop, but he kept going. He wasn’t playing or anything. He didn’t like the truck ride, and now, upset, he was running home! Nothing was going to stop him. The only problem was that he didn’t know which way to go! In his mind he probably thought all roads lead
to home.
“Johnny, Arvids,” I yelled to the boys, “run after him and see if you can catch him!” They run faster than I do with my bad knee. But Rafa had a big lead and he wasn’t slowing down for them.
How do I know Rafa was running for home? Because he was a homebody. He loved his home far better than any other place in the world. In his mind there were two places in the world, home and not home, and I knew he wanted to be home.
I jogged behind trying to catch up with the boys chasing the dog. Rafa never slowed down, so the boys really had no chance of catching him. After running a block down the road, Rafa turned to the left into the tall grasslands of the park. The grass was thick, winter brown, and about three feet tall. Whatever made him decide to turn into the grass, I don’t know. He must have thought home was in that direction. In the grass he became hard to see. Once in a while we could see a patch of black fur moving through the grass. He ran straight ahead, not turning to the left or right, like a dog on a mission. The boys tried to follow him in the grass. Straight as an arrow he ran for a quarter of a mile.
That silly dog! If he kept going he would never find his way home again. In fact, he would end up getting lost far from the home he loved.
We would have lost him for sure, but then something fortunate for us happened. He ran straight into a giant briar patch. The stickers and thorns of this patch were so close together that it stopped Rafa in his tracks. It was too big a patch for him to easily get around. He paused there to catch his breath and my boys caught up to him. They picked him up and carried him back to me. It was a close call. We had almost lost him! When they got back, I put the leash on him and then we all took our walk through the park.
We were fortunate to catch the little fellow. Do you know that little dog is not very different from a lot of human beings? A lot of us have confidence that we know the way home to heaven when we really don’t have a clue. We just kind of start going in any direction, thinking we will be fine in the end. The problem with that is that we are sinners running away from God and not to Him.
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:1212There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12)). There are a lot of people who have a lot of confidence that the way they are going through life is just fine, and they don’t know that the way they have chosen to travel is leading them to death.
I loved my little dog, but his thinking he could get back home by running off in any direction was not a good idea. It is also not a good idea for sinners to think that they may live any way they want and still get to heaven.
The dog was stopped by running into a giant briar patch. The tangled stems of thorns and stickers were too thick for him to get through. Sometimes, God lets us run into a hard thing in our lives. It gets us to slow down and maybe to start thinking about what is most important in life. If it were not for the troubles in our lives, many of us would never come to the Savior.
Are you thinking you can live any way you want and you will still get to heaven? It just isn’t going to happen. In order to give us a home in heaven, God sent His Son into the world. The Lord Jesus gave His life so that all who have gone the wrong way, away from Him, may still find forgiveness and receive the gift of eternal life. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:66All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)).
Because He died and rose again, the Lord Jesus is the way to heaven. “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” He said (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)). You can’t get to heaven any way you choose, but you can get there through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. How about turning your heart to Him who gave His life for you? Only then can you have complete confidence that the way you are going will bring you home to heaven.
Believe in Jesus Christ, and then run towards God, and not away from Him. Start living for Him every day, in every way.
Messages of God’s Love 5/23/2021