Freedom Part 2

years ago, our beloved spunkie spent a weekend at the pound after trying to find her way home from our friends home who were dogsitting for us. we had been gone for 3 days and on the day we were coming home, spunkie decided she had had enough of this lifestyle and started running home. speeding along at 60 miles an hour on a freeway it would only take 45 minutes, but being a dog, going the back roads it took her a whole day to travel half way. she plopped down under a tree in someone's yard to recover from her long day. the woman took pity on the dog and called the pound.

when we got home from our vacation i was devastated to find that spunkie had run off. i prayed and prayed. i called the different pounds in the area monday morning as soon as they were open, i put an ad in the local newspaper and i prayed some more. tues was the 4th of July. i called the different animal control centers again, and then i noticed that a small town south of us had their own animal control. one i hadnt' noticed before. i felt the still small voice of the Holy Spirit nudge me to call.

as i told the worker my plight, trying to find my dog, he didn't think he could help as they only had two dogs. but he asked me for a description of spunkie. as i described her coloring, and her collar and the fact that she was wearing a red bandana, the workers tone changed. he said "I think we have your dog" michael and i drove as fast as we could legally go to pick her up. we checked in and drove down to the pens with the worker. sure enough, there in one of the pens was our dog spunkie! as she spotted our truck and then michael and i as we got out of the truck, her barks and cries of distress turned to ones of delight. after we got the paperwork and all taken care of, we put her in the truck between us. she kept turning from one of us to the other, each time licking, barking with glee, wagging her tail and showing her doggy delight of being rescued.

being rescued on the 4th of july we often referred to that occasion later as spunkie's independence day. her day of redemption. the shelter she had been taken to was a kill shelter and if she hadn't been found the next day they would have put her to sleep. a nice euphemism for a deadly end to life.

we all need a day of redemption, a day when we are rescued by our Father to avert the inevitable. many believe that when they die they will just go to sleep in a never-never land. or they have concocted a fairy tale to keep them from being fearful. but no matter what euphemism they come up with, the truth is we all will stand before our Creator. the Lord offers us redemption before we stand before Him so that we can be clean and holy and acceptable. but we have to take Him up on His offer. He doesn't force it upon us.

so, how bout it? have you had your day of redemption?