One Saturday morning in December Mrs. Turner looked out the window at the blowing snow and read the thermometer... 10° below zero! It was such a cold morning that she shivered even standing indoors. She noticed a little gray dog sitting in a yard up the street. She felt sorry for it because it looked terribly cold.
About noon, as Mrs. Turner was leaving home to run an errand, a neighbor girl, Jill, called to her, “Do you know whose dog this is?” But Mrs. Turner had no idea. Jill was carrying the little dog and said, “His feet look frozen,” but as soon as she set him down he ran away.
Jill could have helped the cold little dog, but for some reason she set him down instead of taking him home. How often we are like that. We know many of our friends are in the cold grip of sin without having the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Yet we do not help them; we do not give them the message of God’s love.
Later that afternoon Shelly and Ellen Turner bundled up to walk to the store. What should come scampering over to meet them but that same little gray dog. He seemed friendly, and Ellen had no problem catching him. He seemed glad of the warmth of her arms as she carried him home to their garage. Although the dog was wearing a collar there were no tags on it to tell them to whom he belonged.
Are we like this shivering dog? Do we really belong to Someone the Lord Jesus Christ and yet no one knows? We are told in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Or do we have our light hidden under a bushel as described in Matthew 5:15?
Mrs. Turner came out to the garage to check on the dog. She was glad to see that he was warmer, but the garage was not warm enough for him to stay there until they could find his owner. So Mrs. Turner called the animal control center in their town. Within a few minutes the van pulled into the driveway.
The animal control officer walked around to the back door of the garage. How surprised Mrs. Turner was when the officer greeted the dog with a friendly, “Well hello, George, how are you?” The officer knew George well — he ran away from home often, and the officer was usually called to pick him up. George would have to go to the police station even though the officer knew exactly where he lived. Because George ran away from home so often, breaking the law of no loose dogs, he could not go back home until his owners paid the cost of the tickets that had piled up.
Boys and girls, how many times have you sinned, breaking God’s laws? The Bible tells us “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. We sometimes sing, “My sins were high as a mountain,” and that would be a lot of sins. There is no way we can pay for all those sins. We cannot even pay for one of them! However, the Lord Jesus paid the price for all our sins if we will only believe on Him and accept Him as our Saviour. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Acts 16:31. Then we can sing,
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain;
He washed it white as snow.
How sad it would be if George never got back to his home — if his owners never paid the price of those tickets (and that was the only way George could be free to go home). Have you ever thanked the Lord Jesus Christ that He paid the price for your sins and set you free? “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift [the Lord Jesus Christ].” 2 Corinthians 9:15.
ML-11/19/1989