I have a beautiful Border Collie that has come to stay with me, most likely permanently.
Her name is Precious, and so she is! Gentle, sweet, loving and intense as Border
Collie's can be. She came to me with literally nothing--no possessions. As always, I am
learning a lot from her. Border Collies like to herd, as I am finding out. As she has
begun to amass possessions with the proclivity of a raven--a stuffed toy, various bones,
a ball, a hard piece of bread, her dog bowl, she herds them all into her bed. Then she lays
down on them so she can make sure they are "safe." Sometimes when I call her and
she won't come its because she is "on guard duty" on her bed. She counts all the items,
I think, because I have taken things from her bed when she is not looking and then I
soon find the item back in her bed.
All of this reminds me very much of how we, as humans, can relate to our possessions.
We start out with our birthday suit and pretty soon we can't get out of our bed, even
when the Master calls, because we are "watching our stuff."
Sometimes I put food in the bowl in her bed. and then I go back and gently pretend that
I am going to take it back. She is very good--she would not growl at me or refuse me the
right to take it back, but she does a good job at herding me off in another direction--
the old "hey, look over there" trick. She does let me take the food back, but
it creates anxiety in her. Hmm...now do you or I get like that when God touches our stuff?
We know all our things belongs to Him, we know we are His, and all that we have
came to us from Him. We came with nothing, but now we get nervous if He starts to
"touch" our "stuff." Perhaps we had less when we had no worldy possessions, but then
we get them and anxiety about taking care of them fills our minds. And this does not just
apply to physical items but to the very essence of our lives--we guard our lives, and the more
vigilant a personality we are, the more we guard it. Border Collies are not slackers,
they are type A personalitie--they are on the job 24/7. But that trait can work against
them when they are put in charge of minding things--because they don't know when
to stop and call it a day. They don't know when to go home and go to bed because
even in their bed they have to guard! Yikes!
All I can tell you is that there is a big lesson in all this: If you are the Lord's Border Collie,
give all your items back to Him. Travel light, my friend.
