Rev.
Vicar Josh Ketelsen 740-0457
(home)
FAX 548-3206
FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK: I don’t know how many times I have told people, “Never say never.” When they say, “I’ll never get married” or “I’ll never get married again,” or “I’ll never move again,” I just smile and say, “Never say never.”
So when my wife and I moved into our home out in the country a few years ago and said we’d never have a dog out there, I guess I wasn’t listening to my own advice that I so easily pass on to other people. Because for the past 4 or 5 months we have had a dog.
It happened so innocently. I was visiting with Don Blank and his then fiancée Jenni Balis one day last Fall and they started telling me about this stray dog that they’d found darting in and out of traffic right out in front of the house they were fixing up next to IGA. So Jenni, who has a heart for animals softer than melting butter, rescued this black Lab mix and took it to Don’s house, hoping to find a good home for it. Well, when I was visiting there a few weeks later, somehow the subject of this dog came up. Don’t ask me why, but I asked if I could see the pup, knowing full well that Marilyn and I had said we would never have another dog. He was bigger than I expected, though I could tell he wasn’t going to get as big as a full-blooded Lab. And he was friendly… and oh so gentle – maybe even a bit timid, as though he had been mistreated by his original owner. He seemed to be pretty intelligent too. So after getting to know him, I kind of found myself envisioning him out at our place in the country, free to run and roam the woods. But I knew I had a major obstacle to overcome before that would ever happen. That obstacle’s name was…Marilyn. So I gently broke the news to her about what I was thinking, giving all the positive points I could think of about how nice it would be to have an outdoor dog where we lived. Much to my surprise she didn’t say no. She was open to looking at the dog. So we did that later on that day and she too found this gentle pup to be quite likeable if not loveable. And before you could say “Never say never,” we were the proud owners of Freddy, the name we assigned to him.
When we got out to our house, the first thing he did was to run for the pond and jump in. Then, after swimming a bit, he came running to our house but didn’t stop. He just kept right on running into the woods behind our house and I thought we’d lost him before we even had a chance to have him. But he came back and started making himself at home with his new owners. And life was great.
But then Freddy learned how to bark…and bark…and bark! So we bought him one of those shock collars that gives him a little jolt every time he barks. It was kind of expensive, but it did take care of the problem.
Then he learned to chase our car and our neighbors’ vehicles, all the way out to the highway and even into the highway. He also played havoc with my neighbor during deer season, for which I received a phone call one evening asking me to please tie up Freddy so he wouldn’t scare the deer away. So we invested in a wireless fence for our yard which makes use of another shock collar, but again, does a very good job of keeping him in our yard. By this time, our free dog was beginning to cost a rather sizeable sum of money.
Then Freddy learned how to chew. He chewed up our welcome mat by the front door. Then he did the same with our mat by the back door. Next he tackled the 2 rockers we have on our front porch. Then it was brooms, dust pans, his dog house, the hose on my Shop-Vac, and a whole host of other things. Indeed, nothing in our garage was safe from this canine’s canines. So I bought some special spray – “chew deterrent” they called it – and that seemed to help.
I figure this free dog has now cost us somewhere around $400 - $500, give or take a few pennies. But you know what? I still love the silly thing. I can have a tough or long day at work and when I come home, there’s Freddy, wagging not just his tail but his whole back end because he’s so glad to see me. And I can toss a tennis ball as many times as I want and he’ll chase it and bring it back to me. And I’ve taught him how to shake hands and sit up pretty. And if I want a sloppy old kiss planted on my cheek, I don’t have to ask Marilyn anymore.J All I have to do is drop my head low enough and Freddy will give me one. So even though I get kind of upset with him at times for all the things he does wrong, I still love him enough to keep paying whatever I have to in order to keep him.
Does that sound kind of familiar to you, my friends? You recognize yourself in this story, don’t you? If not, let me make it very clear to you. You are Freddy. And I am Freddy. Like the hymn writer of old put it: “I once was lost, but now am found.” But then we were spotted by One who has a heart for humans that is softer than melting butter. And He took us in. He provided for us. He gave us a home. He gave us our life back.
And what did we do? Well, we learned to bark and bark and complain and complain about how we wished things were different or better for us. And we learned how to chase not after cars but after the things of this world that were only going to get us into trouble sooner or later. And we learned how to chew not on mats or brooms or chairs, but on all those blessings our Owner had given us, only to ruin them rather than appreciate them.
And what did He do? He just kept right on loving us. And out of that love He corrected us, not with shock collars, but with His holy laws that act like a curb to keep us on the right path and within the perimeters and parameters of His will. And when a price had to be paid for all the things we had done wrong, He was willing to pay it – even when that price consisted of His own life on an old rugged Roman cross.
So, from one Freddy to another, I hope you appreciate how good we have it and how special our Owner is. He’s the Giver of grace that we don’t deserve, the Forgiver of sins we shouldn’t have done, and the Bestower of a life beyond this one that we can’t even imagine. May the lives we live each and every day reflect our love and appreciation for this divine Owner who has taken us in and who will one day make His eternal home our home.
Just call me,