Day 57

 

Stray Dogs and Grace

 

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."

 

Ephesians 2:8-9

 

We had a white dog named "Brownie." I know the name doesn't exactly fit but my then 4 year old son, Ethan, picked the name out before we picked out the dog. He had his heart set on a dog named Brownie so that became his name. And actually we didn't pick out the dog, he picked us out. He was a stray.

When Brownie came to us he was in a bad way. He had an open wound on his shoulder, was covered with ticks and fleas, had mange and was just about starved to death. We couldn't bear to see the dog starve so we fed him and he stayed. My wife, Jo, is a nurse and she doctored his wound as best she could. We got some worm medicine down him and after a shampoo to get rid of fleas and ticks we applied some mange medicine to him. Brownie started looking like a half way decent dog.

So, Brownie found a home. We rescued him from  death, or at least a very hard life.We saved him; it was an act of grace. You see Brownie had never pulled one of us out of a burning building or rescued us from a lunatic gunman. Brownie had never loved us, known us or thought of us. But we took pity on Brownie, a poor, ugly, sick, starving, stray dog. We fed him, we healed him and we gave him a home. It was grace.

I was a spiritually poor, sin sick and starving for a relationship with God stray boy when Jesus took pity on me. Jesus healed me of my sin, his word and his Spirit feed my soul and I have a home built in heaven. It was and is and will be grace. I didn't, don't and never could deserve it.

I didn't go looking for Brownie, he came to my house. In contrast, Jesus came down from heaven looking for me. It was wonderful, loving and amazing grace.

Brownie turned out to be a pretty good dog. He was no Lassie barking out a warning that the dam was about to break and flood the whole valley. But then again, maybe he did. Perhaps the problem was that I was no Timmy and didn't understand what he was barking about.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Luke 18:9-14

• Who did the Pharisee measure his goodness against?
• Did the tax collector make any claim of worth?
• Is it better to "justified by God" or to be self-justified?