Hear Him

A black Labrador retriever named Bear was a member of our family for fourteen years. I bought him as a little pup and he lived with us until he was an old man in dog years. As he got old he would sleep most of the time and when he awoke, it took him several minutes to get upright and he would walk around yawning, taking stiff legged steps as he got his old joints warmed up.

He loved to lay right in front of the doorsteps whereby anyone entering the house would have to step over him. If you were carrying groceries or something it was very inconvenient because he was a big dog. If you called his name, even if you shouted it, he would not even open his eyes, much less move out of the way; it was as though he was stone deaf.

The only way to move him was to nudge him with your foot. He would crack his eyes open and give you an annoyed look and if the nudge persisted or worse turned into a kick, he would go through his routine of arising and doing the stiff-legged prance. He would raise his head, simultaneously pointing both his nose and tail towards the ceiling, and sag in the middle with his belly nearly touching the floor as he stretched and widely yawned, and then he would shake beginning at his tail all of the way to his ears and nose and would finally stalk out of the way a few steps to allow you by as he stood there and glared at you for causing him such inconvenience.

We were convinced that old Bear had gone deaf until one day when I observed that he could actually hear much better than I could hear. Our family loved to grill out and we did it often. My wife always bought whatever she was cooking for the rest of us for Bear as well. If she bought us a steak, she bought one for Bear; the same would hold true for hamburgers, pork chops, hot dogs, or whatever. He would stand at her feet as she cooked and would impatiently shift his weight from one foot to the other doing his unique barbeque dance, wagging his tail, licking his lips, and begging with his eyes. When his meal was cooked to perfection, (medium rare), she would allow it to cool some and then give it to him and he would devour it smacking his delight with his eyes brightly shining and wagging his big tail in appreciation.

The routine for grilling was that my wife would go out on the deck which was located in the back of our house overlooking our farm pond. It was quite a long distance from the steps in the front of our house, (the prime location that Bear preferred to catch up on his sleep). My wife would raise the lid on the grill, and as she did so it made a slight squeaking sound that was barely audible to me. You would think it was a five alarm fire to Bear. Gone was the stiff legged prance, gone was the yawn and sagging stretch. instead his ears stood at attention and he immediately jumped up and tore out around the house running like the wind as though he were a youngster reliving his glorious past when he would splash his way lickety-split out of a duck blind to retrieve a downed duck. He would arrive at my wife’s feet seconds later before the grill had even been lit.

Old Bear heard what he wanted to hear, plain and simple. I have some friends like old Bear. They shut their eyes and ears to ignore the gentle call of our Lord, and readily open them to most anything else. They must sleep in and get their rest on Sunday morning rather than go to church; however will not hesitate to get up long before dawn to go fishing or catch that early morning tee time.

Old Bear has long since departed this earth. I really miss him. I asked God to allow him into heaven and reminded God that when I asked Bear if He loved Jesus that he wagged his tail and mustered a big grin. To me that seemed to be the equivalent of saying yes in dog talk. I’m hoping for the best, but unfortunately I’m not convinced that dogs will make it into heaven and sadly neither am I convinced that some of my friends who just cannot seem to make time to get serious about God will either. I am afraid that time is running out for them as it eventually did for old Bear. As the Bible states there is a time to live and there is a time to die and we all will abide by it, barring the Rapture.

One day we will face our loving holy Father Jesus Christ who sacrificed so much for us and we will give a detailed accounting of what we have done in this life. What will your accounting be like? Will God look at you with a smile on His face and tell you, “Well done my good and faithful servant!” If not, then maybe today is the day to start working towards that worthy goal. Think about it

Isaiah 55:6
Seek the Lord while He may
be found