Monday I posted about my dog, Emmy. Today, in the interest of equal time I share about our other dog, Oscar.Â
Almost every day our dachshund Oscar stares out a window to threateningly growl and bark at the dogs in the neighbors’ yards. When he is satisfied that he has those Yellow Labs in one yard, or the Great Dane in another, sufficiently concerned about what he might do to them if they got too close, he puts his ears up and prances around the house for a few seconds. He is so proud of his incredible power – all eight pounds of him.
He seems convinced that his “intimidating” presence keeps those dogs out of our house. It’s fun to watch. He doesn’t seem to notice the fence and door that stand between him and those other dogs. The fact that the neighbor’s dogs are literally about 10 times his size and don’t even seem to notice the noise he’s making, doesn’t affect his ego at all. In his mind, it’s all him. He is keeping our house safe.
It made me wonder how many times God must be as amused with me as I am with Oscar. Times when my inflated ego or delusions of power must have Him giggling (yes, I think God giggles ”“ at least at me). As Oscar misses noticing the fence and the door, I often overlook what He is doing in my life. I try to take credit for things that I could never do without Him.
The very first sin was exactly that. Adam and Eve were promised that they could be “like God” if they ate from the tree (Genesis 3:4-5). The serpent made it sound as if God was trying to keep the human beings down. And how did they act? They bought the lie. It sure sounded good. Like Oscar ignoring all around him that has been provided, Adam and Eve, who have spent their whole life in paradise, believe God is holding out on them. Hard to imagine they could miss all that God had done for them. But then again…
Some things never seem to change. We are very much the same. I’m not trying to say this is even close to paradise, but God is all around us and somehow we miss Him, over and over again.
Even when he is trying to teach us a lesson through an annoying little dog that won’t stop barking!