TRUE LOVE
Being a dog lover I was touched by the following story Christy, a
friend since childhood shared with me. I have no idea who the author
is, but it
is a wonderful story.
"Minnie was the funniest looking dog I'd ever seen. During summer
vacations, I volunteered at the vet's, and I'd seen a lot of dogs.
Thin, curly hair
barely covered her sausage-shaped body. Her bugged-out eyes always
seemed
surprised. Her tail looked like a rat's tail. She was brought to the
vet
to be put to sleep because her owners didn't want her anymore. I
thought
Minnie had a sweet personality though. No one should judge her by her
looks,
I thought. So the vet spayed her and gave her the necessary shots.
Finally, I advertised Minnie in the local paper: "Funny-looking dog,
well behaved, needs loving family." When a young man called, I
warned him that Minnie was strange looking. The boy on the phone told
me that his grandfather's sixteen-year-old dog had just died. They
wanted Minnie no matter what.
I gave her a good bath and fluffed-up what was left of her scraggly
hair. Then we waited for them to arrive. At last, an old car drove up
in front
of the vet's. Two kids raced to the door. They grabbed Minnie into
their
arms and rushed her out to the grandfather. He was waiting in the car.
I
hurried behind them to see his reaction to Minnie.
Inside the car, the grandfather cradled Minnie in his arms and stroked
her soft hair. She licked his face. Her rat-tail wagged so quickly that
it looked like it might fly off her body. It was love at first lick.
The
old man smiled and exclaimed, "She's perfect!" I was thankful that
Minnie
had found the good home she deserved. That's when I saw that the
grandfather's
eyes were a milky-white color. He was blind."
You see in a similar way God is blind when it comes to seeing the
ugliness of our lives, if we are putting forth the effort to do what's
right. My
number one favorite verse in the bible is1 John 1:7 where John writes,
"But
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one
with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all
sin."
Now I purposely used the King James Translation here, because we can
see
an important teaching through it. Notice the word used for how Jesus'
blood
helps us. John says, it "cleanseth" us. When this was translated from
the
Greek into English back in 1611 AD that little "eth" on the end of the
word
was meant to show that the Greek language indicated this wasn't
something
that only happened once (i.e. when you were first baptized). It is a
"continuing
action." In other words, as long as we are trying to "walk in the
light,"
(that is live as we should be living), Jesus' blood continually washes
away
our sins.
That's why God is blind to our sins, Jesus blood has already washed
them away and God can no longer see them. That is why he is always
ready to pick us up with a big smile and say, "You're perfect!" You
might take a look
at the next few verses after that and see what part of walking in the
light
includes, but I think you get the idea.
My prayer is that you will love God enough that you will be just as
filled with excitement as Minnie at the thought of being in His arms,
and that
you will love Him enough to continue "walking in the light" of
His
Word.
Russ Lawson,
Greenville Church of Christ,
Greenville, OH
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