The Dog At The Door

My wife Cathy has a dog and the dog adores her. Wherever Cathy goes the dog follows her. If she moves from the kitchen to the bedroom, the dog gets up and follows her, if she goes outside to the  backyard the dog follows her outside. Wherever Cathy goes the dog will follow. I’m sure other people have dogs just like that. That is just the way dogs are.

When Cathy leaves to take an extended trip, such as going shopping, the dog will begin to mope and go lie down either in a closet, under a desk or on her favorite chair. The dog will stay there…. sad. About 30 minutes before Cathy comes home the dog will get up and go lie about six feet from the front door, facing the door, head down on the floor. The dog senses something, I’m not sure what, but the dog senses that her Mistress is now coming back.  In about another 20 minutes, with Cathy 10 minutes away, the dog will perk up, its head will be lifted up, its tail will begin to wag slowly and the dog will begin to whimper softly. In another five minutes the dog will get up go to the door and wag its tail, look expectantly and whine a little bit louder. When the car pulls into the driveway, which I never hear because she drives a Prius, the dog begins to bark and dance at the door. Now when Cathy opens the door and walks into the house all Heaven breaks loose for the dog, it is a grand and glorious moment and the dog will bark loudly, shake its body, run back and forth and break out into a dog dance. Then the dog will shimmy up to her and snuggle against her leg with snout pointed up and eyes looking for a response. Cathy will pat the dog’s head and  at that point the world for the dog is good again.

As I observed our dog go through that process one day it struck me that Christians are a lot like dogs waiting for their master to return.  When Jesus departed one of the first questions asked was “When is He coming back”? And for the first almost two thousand years we had no indication that he was coming back other than a promise. Sometime in the 1970’s Christians began to sense that Jesus was on his way back and we moved  to a position in  front of the door. Then in the 1980’s and 90’s our senses picked up that he was even closer and we got more excited beginning to whimper expectantly. Now we are at the front door knowing that He is almost here. Some Christians with senses a little out of whack have made predictions that He will show up by a specific date and of course He hasn’t. That is just part of the excitement but it doesn’t mean they are completely wrong and that He is not out there.

Sometimes Cathy will come home and it will take her a little longer that normal to come through the front door, of course that confuses the dog and it will stop for a minute, being confused because Cathy is late according to the dogs sense of  time. According to the dog all of the indicators were there and the dog heard the car pull into the driveway, and yet Cathy didn’t walk through the door when expected. Usually, Cathy is a little longer coming through the front door because she was listening to the end of song she likes.

Jesus is out there. Yes He is. He is right outside, but He is finishing something we can’t comprehend. Any minute now He will be at the door and all Heaven will break out and we will be shouting and dancing with great joy.


Kurt S