Through The Door

I once had a dog named Jenkins. He was a black miniature poodle; a show dog. Jenkins caused many headaches. We had to take him to an animal psychologist because of his relentless destruction of our home. The diagnosis was that he had "Leader of the Pack" syndrome. He thought he should be the leader and we were not to leave him alone or he would get even.

When he was young he liked to eat shoes and handbags. One time we had friends over and the lady took her shoes off during the visit. When she got ready to leave, we found that Jenkins had eaten the entire tops of her shoes. There was nothing we could do about him. At first when we left the house, we would just leave him in the house. However, after he destroyed plants, furniture, and left his marked trail all over the house, we learned that we would just have to lock him in the utility room while we were out.

By this time we had another poodle and a Doberman. When we would leave the house, we would keep the Doberman in the kitchen and the poodles in the utility room next to the kitchen. Jenkins decided that he would eat his way through the hollow door into the kitchen. It took him years. We would come home and each time he would make a little progress towards his goal of reaching the other side of the door. We would clean up the chips he left and just let him have his way.

Over the years, Jenkins had finally eaten through the one entire side of the hollow door as far as he could reach on his tiptoes. Now he could start to eat the other side so as to get into the kitchen.

We came home one day to find the kitchen floor covered with dog food and tiny pieces of paper that were once a 50-pound dog food bag. Jenkins had finally made it through the door and what did he find; Annie the Doberman; not us. Annie liked to play around with him, so I assume she roughed him up. Jenkins must have been so frustrated from all his work to find nothing on the other side except Annie, so he went into the pantry and proceeded to demolish his own dog food bag. What an animal.

We are sometimes like Jenkins. No sense for acceptance of where we are; no obedience learned through lessons God has given us. We get frustrated by the results of our efforts and sometimes just tear things up into worldly pieces thinking that all this really matters. We go through doors that are forbidden by the Master. Jesus is our Master. He knows what's good for us. We should listen and obey. We should accept his love and grace and patiently wait for His return. Praise God.

Brad Warren