Jul
22
Written by:
Rev. Ed Boon
7/22/2010 12:57 PM
One of the things I was able to do on my vacation this year was to take in a couple of state high points, one of them Mount Mitchell which at 6684 feet is not only the highest point in the state of North Carolina but also the highest peak east of the Mississippi. It is about 400 feet higher than Mt. Washington.
The hike itself which leaves from the Black Mountain Camp Ground had a 3700 foot elevation gain from the trailhead to the summit. A hike of that magnitude in the White Mountains would involve some pretty stiff climbing, but with the gentle switchbacks on this North Carolina Mountain the hike was never difficult. In due time we arrived at the top quite proud of our accomplishment.
Interestingly, the Mt. Mitchell trail that we took is not the only way to reach the top of this mountain. There is also a road that goes up to a parking lot located just a couple of hundred feet below the summit. So it was when we arrived at the top where I intended to make the highest dog in the east claim for Lauky we were greeted by two other dogs who had arrived by car—an Airedale and another Welsh Terrier. Lauky not only was not the highest dog east of the Mississippi, he wasn’t even the highest Welsh Terrier. But that didn’t matter in the least to him, on the contrary, he was overjoyed to meet another ‘brother’ there.
As I sat on a bench up on the top of the summit tower talking with the owners of the two dogs, someone came up and asked what breed the dogs were. The owner said “The larger one is an Airedale and the smaller one a Welsh Terrier. But don’t be fooled by the appearance, they might look alike but they are as different as day is from night. The Airedale is calm and obedient and the Welsh is the exact opposite.” Another time, I was sitting on a bench with Lauky in front of a shop in the quaint little town of Ellijay, Georgia. A family of four walked by and the wife said, “Oh look, a Welsh Terrier, we have one too.” I asked if their dog was sweet and obedient and they all laughed and said “More like hard headed and rebellious.” So it is, the stubborn, independent, rebellious, headstrong little Welsh Terrier lives up to his reputation. I was told recently that an unusually high proportion of Welsh Terriers end up in rescue shelters because their owners thought they were getting a miniature Airedale and ended up with a dog they couldn’t handle.
I was thinking about all this today as I watched Lauky interact with some folks with his characteristic “I’m the center of the universe” attitude. I thought to myself, “Dog, you don’t know how fortunate you are. You take your way of life for granted. Not only have you done nothing to deserve what you got, you’ve done just about everything possible to lose your privileged status, yet there you are.” You have what you have simply because someone loves you and puts up with you.
Then it occurred to me that our relationship as humans with God is very much the same. So often we think we’re the center of the universe, that everything revolves around us and that God somehow is indebted to us and is obliged to serve us. How far from the truth can we be. The truth is we don’t deserve a thing. It is only by the grace of God that we receive His blessings. Grace has been so well defined as “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” The Bible tells us that while we were still God’s enemies Christ died for us. God is love, and our salvation, and indeed all of the blessings that we receive from God come not because of who we are or what we have done but because of who God is. That indeed is Grace.
Dogs cannot be expected to grasp complex concepts such as this. We can and should but so often we don’t. With hearts overflowing with gratitude and knees that bow humbly before Him, we should praise God for his Grace. We in turn should respond in love giving all of our lives to the one who loved us with such great love.
As we read in Eugene Peterson’s THE MESSAGE, You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust Him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing. Eph. 2: 2-10