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The Story of the Road Picture
Our dog Molly played an important role in the story you‘re about to read. She became ill late last year and died January 4th, 2008. We were very blessed to be able to spend almost 12 years with one of His extraordinary creatures. We will miss her . . .
The picture on the CD insert is that of me and our beloved dog Molly, Smartest Dog in the Land -- or at least a contender, anyway. In preparing the art work for Inhabit My Praise, my wife and I had taken several rolls of pictures with an idea in mind that never quite flew. For quite some time, though, I had thought a shot of walking up the country road that fronts our home might be nice. (I walk it almost daily with Molly for two reasons: to get our exercise, obviously, but more importantly for prayer.) |
So one day Catherine joined us, and we all set off down the road. About halfway down we stopped, and Molly and I proceeded to walk back up the hill, Catherine staying behind with the camera, clicking away. But Molly resisted this new way of doing things almost immediately.
Catherine rarely goes on our walks, but when she does she always walks with us. I would like to ascribe Molly's attentiveness in the photo to how well she's trained, but frequently she has to be reminded not to walk too far ahead or lag too far behind. (She is both squirrel- and rabbit-intolerant and engages in a chase occasionally.)
But in Molly's tiny dog mind, leaving Catherine behind was certainly not the right thing to do. Why were we leaving her behind? She always walks with us. It's not something we'd ever done before. Why were we doing it now? (Actually, it was probably something more like "She's back there; she's back there; she's back there." She's not that smart.)
She's looking at me so attentively trying to figure out why I'm leading her up this hill in such unusual circumstances. And all the coaxing I could do didn't make any difference: she would not keep going. We gave up after a few shots, not getting the picture that we'd hoped for, and she rushed back to see Catherine after such a traumatic separation from her beloved "Mrs."
We got the pictures back, and of all the ones we took, this one particularly struck Catherine's fancy, and I liked it, too. We decided to include it in the project simply because we liked it, and we didn't think much more about it.
But a few weeks later Molly and I are taking our walk again on that same road without Catherine, and I'm in prayer at about that same spot. I'm not sure exactly how it occurred -- perhaps I was wondering why this was happening or why that was happening -- but my mind was brought to that picture.
And I realized that I'm walking down a road, too, and sometimes some of the things He wants me to do just don't make any sense. And I question: Why are You doing it that way, Lord? You've never done it like that before. Why are You doing it that way now? And He coaxes and encourages me and tells me it's OK and everything will be fine -- just to trust Him.
But I don't always.
And sometimes I stop, too, because I don't trust Him like I should, and I don't realize that if I just keep walking, pretty soon I'll reach the crest of the hill and have a whole new view -- and see another horizon. And then maybe I'll understand.
But even if Molly had trusted me enough to keep walking while we took those shots, she would never have known why we were doing something that seemed so strange to her.
And sometimes neither do we . . .
Know what He wants you to do. Trust Him enough to walk with Him. |
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