Nearly all of my adult life I have owned a dog. Presently, as many of you know, we have a black lab – Barnabas, the best dog in all the world! But my first dog as an adult was a German shepherd named Czar.
The house I lived in with Czar had a small screened in porch in the back of the house off the family room. We had a nice size back yard but I could not afford to fence in the whole thing. When I would let Czar out of the screen door on the right side of the back porch I would have to stand with him in order to keep him in the yard.
Then one day I decided I could afford enough chain link fence to create a three sided enclosure 6 ft high off the back side of the screened porch. The plan included a “doggie-door” in one of the panels in the screen, through which Czar could come and go as long as the sliding door was open between the family room and the screened porch.
Jim Hosey of Hosey Fence came out and installed the fence and somehow the “doggie door” got installed as well. Everything was ready. I opened the sliding door and let Czar out on the back porch. I showed him the door and told him to go. He looked around and went right to the side door of the porch waiting to go out. I took him back to the “doggie door” and pushed his nose against it to show him how it worked. He wasn’t having any of it.
Next I decided to put his water, his ball and his food out in the run just knowing that would compel him to go through the door. No luck. Instead he insisted on getting out into the backyard so he could try to find a way into the run. He tried everything he could to get inside the fence, everything except the way that had been created for him to enter.
Finally I had a brainstorm. I would get down on my hands and knees and in effect become a dog, so that I could show him the way in. I was much younger then so I was able to get down and crawl through the “doggie door.” I crawled out and called him. Nothing. I crawled back into the porch and out again. Nothing. Not until the third time of showing Czar the one and only way into the pen did he follow me. Once he had done it he was in heaven as far as he was concerned.
Do you see the connection between this event in my life and the Gospel? Religions (all of them) are about man’s attempt to get to God or to please God. Christianity is God’s provision for entrance into His presence. Christianity is not a religion. It is a way. The first Christians were known as the people of the way.
Czar didn’t need to do anything in his own strength in order to get into his version of heaven. All he had to do was enter by the way that had been created for him. But I had to become a dog, as it were, in order for him to see and trust the way. I made the way and showed him the way.
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” He made the way by living a perfect life and by dying the death we should have died. He showed us the way by becoming a man.
Just like Czar, we need to enter by the way that has been provided for us into the presence of God and stop trying to work our way (religion) into God’s favor and presence. In Christ (the way) we are holy and pleasing to God and we have all the rights of sonship. Stop working and do as Jesus said to the Apostles – follow me.
Wonderful example!! Dogs–sometimes they look at you like they are trying so hard to communicate or understand, and, yes! The answer would be to become “one of them” to truly communicate beyond the command /obey level.
Another great comparison…we all want to read about the “dog” and his success, much harder to read about ourselves until the way is made clear….thanks for not using us as the first example…but letting us get into it with no stress.
Love the word picture! I plan to share it with my family this week while on vacation.