The Urge to Run Away

 

   Just before the holidays, Al and I were out in the front yard late one afternoon putting up Christmas tree lights. All of a sudden Al noticed a yellow streak racing through the neighbor’s field. “That looks like Teddy. Wait! It is Teddy and there goes TJ after him!”

  There was no time to lose. From past experience whenever the dogs escaped from our yard they would run off, oblivious to our calls. Al went to get the car, while I ran to the corner of our property, climbed over the fence and looked around frantically. They were nowhere in sight.

   Our neighbor also had spotted them running through his field, hopped in his truck and headed down Globe Drive towards Porterville. It was starting to get dark, so I yelled as loudly as possible hoping my voice would echo off the mountains. A chorus of coyote howls and yips started up in the distance, which made me worry that coyotes were after our dogs. I prayed that God would protect them and bring them home safely, but was starting to think that they might not be found for several days.

    By that time, Al was driving down Globe in the opposite direction and John, our neighbor across the street, had also joined in the search. I waited on the edge of the road holding a very weak flashlight, peering out into the dark. John brought me a stronger light and then went out to look around his pond and field. I asked him to pray that they would come home.

   Then, I remembered it was their dinner time. So I changed my calls from “Teddy! TJ! Come home!” to “Come and get your cottage cheese! Dinner time!” It wasn’t more than five minutes before I heard the sound of panting and the pounding of feet. Two wet, scraggly dogs emerged out of nowhere! Good thing they like their dog food ala mode! I held onto their collars and scolded them for running away until Al drove up in the car.

   After thanking our wonderful neighbors and saying good-night, I put on their leashes, walked them around to the back yard and gave them a dab of cottage cheese with their dog food. Al searched the perimeter of the yard by flashlight and discovered a small opening under the fence where they must have gotten out. The first thing he did the following morning was to reinforce that part of the fence so that they wouldn’t escape again. We were both thankful for God’s answering our prayers, especially since TJ, who is a black lab, could have easily been hit by a car.

    The very next day, Teddy managed to get out of his leash when we went out to get the paper. I hung onto TJ, while watching his “brother,” oblivious to my calls, slide under a barbed wire fence on neighbor John’s property and disappear into a thicket. Al had to leave his work and help “retrieve” the retriever for the second time in two days. He rang the doorbell and then went around to the back field, where Teddy was swimming across a large pond in pursuit of a white egret.

   When John stood out on the earthen dam and whistled for Teddy, he came right over for a pat.  That made it easy to slip a leash on over his head. While Al led our errant canine home, I was fuming, thinking “Teddy, you’re in big trouble. Why do you keep running away after all we have done for you?” Possibly his urge to run was the reason why he was a ‘rescue’ dog in the first place.

   So is this how God feels when we constantly ignore Him and go our own way? Is He disappointed and angry? Frustrated? Thank goodness He doesn’t give up on us, but is there for us when we repent, make a ‘U’ turn and come back to Him. Will Teddy ever learn? Will we?

  “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” Hebrews 3:12-13 NIV