Unshackled Echo ~ October 6, 2018 ~ Every Dog Can Have His Day

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

April 2, 2015.

This hungry hound cross has been running up and down the road and through the fields near where I work for a while now. I don't know if he ran off from where he belonged or if he got dumped. But he's been losing weight and looking rough. The day before yesterday a friend of mine coaxed the shy and wary dog to her and put him in a collar and on a chain for the night. She left him some food and went home, planning to take him to the vet to see if he was microchipped. In the meantime she sent photo to her husband who immediately wanted the dog and asked her to bring him home.

Yesterday I arrived at work about the same time my friend showed up to take care of the dog. She told me about him and how her husband wanted him. As we got to the spot where she'd left him we noticed he was gone. The dog had eaten the food left for him, broken his collar and fled. He's spent who knows how long fending for himself, barely surviving, and had run from an amazing opportunity. He was about  to be cared for, have a home with AC and Heat and a back yard to play in, a master who wanted him to enjoy life and be happy and would provide for his every need, to have all the food he could eat and live the rest of his days in comfort. But he ran from the perceived restriction of the collar.

A few hours later he showed back up, and my friend caught him again. He was worse. At some point after his escape he had been shot with a pellet gun. She scooped him up, took him to a vet and treated his wound while checking for the microchip. With no microchip or tag to say who he belonged to, she took him home. By the end of the day, he was comfortable,

well fed and had his wounds treated. If someone shows they're missing a dog, my friend will gladly return him, but if not, he will have a loving home with her and her husband. He will have a better life. If only he hadn't fled the night before he wouldn't have gotten shot before finding a home.

Too often we are like the stray. We want to fend for ourselves, to run our own life. We want freedom and to have no master but ourselves. But at best we barely survive. We got sick. We go hungry. And from time to time we get shot. There is One who loved us from the first moment and has called us to him. He wants only the best for us. He wants to give us purpose, relationship, nourishment and love. He wants to give us the paradise of a home, sheltered from the elements and protected from enemies. He wants to give us heaven. But in some misunderstanding of freedom verses the collar, we try to take a little food and then run away again to do our own thing. It usually ends with us being shot and crawling back, wounded for help. We can avoid all that extra pain by just letting our new master love us and care for us without running. Life will be so much better and easier. It's not too late for us old strays to learn this new truth.

Lord, help me to remember that You love me and want only the best for me. Let me not try to break Your collar to be my own master any longer. Let me settle into the comfort, safety and pleasure that comes from belonging to You. Amen.

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