Max and God

I HATE COMPUTERS

The first paragraph posted on its own. I don't want to type it again so here is the rest.

Max, not a candidate for sainthood, is a 2 year old, 11 pound, Miniature Pinscher, or Min Pin as they are called. Max has 3 legs, but it doesn't seem to hinder him in any way, in fact it enables him to cuddle up in smaller places than a 4th leg would allow. He uses this to his advantage. We got him a year ago from a rescue shelter. They found him by a community pool with no tag. His leg was already gone and the scar was so well-healed that I believe it was amputated at a very young age due to a birth defect or injury. Max loves to play, which enables Pepper, who is twice Max's size, to practice her tolerance. At home Max loves to dig and run, which goes together well when he digs out of our yard to go exploring. Even when I have lined our fence with rocks, big rocks, that Max, I assume by calling on evil power, can move. He digs by laying down on the side with the missing leg and then put his one front leg into hyper-drive
until the desired hole appears. When he was first with us he would take any opportunity to get out the front door, even hiding under the table till no one was paying attention, and then he was gone. I think that may be why he was found abandoned. Maybe the owner just got tired of chasing him. Max will run around the neighborhood, not to anyplace in particular, because any adventure will do. He has even run into a neighbors house whose door was open because she was taking groceries in. He found their dog's food and invited himself to dinner. Obviously to this point he has always come back on his own or because he got tired and we caught him.
Pepper shames easily. Not Max. So when the adventure is over he looks at you as if to say, "let me know when you're ready to go again." Pepper knows that is wrong so she shames for him.
Well, in case you don't know we are outside of Taos in Jerry and Carol Woods' cabin. When we take walks with the dog, Max is on a leash, but Pepper doesn't need one. If she gets to far away all we have to do is call her and she will come right back. On the first walk two horses came up to the fence to check us out. I let them smell my hand and then petted them. I held up Max and they touched noses. Pepper stood on her back legs and stretched until she touched noses. When we got back to the cabin's driveway, feeling mercy, I let Max off the leash thinking he would follow Pepper up to the cabin. No. He took off down the road to see the horses. I'm yelling and chasing and he is ignoring me. He gets to them and starts visiting, allowing me to catch up. Then he is off again, but at least it is in the direction of the cabin. A combination of him getting tired, too many interesting smells to investigate and my determination not to let this runt beat me, I finally caught him. On the way back I could just sense that he was proud of himself.
On three separate occasions, Kathryn, of kinder disposition, took both dogs for a walk and each time Max convinced her it would be okay to take the leash off because he wouldn't run this time. the first time, about a 1/4 mile from the cabin Max took off across a field, probably looking for his horses. Kathryn realized he was gettin too far away and began the chase. She had to go through two barb-wired fences and knee-high grass before she approached a little creek that seperated the field from the mountain. She prayed. Max decided not to swim and started running again, but not back toward Kathryn. Well, God, having mercy on Kathryn, had Max get tired, and when she was close, and with a sweet voice, made Max role over and plead temporary insanity. The second time he must have forgotten about the horses because he went the other direction through the pine trees and aspen that seperate each cabin by thirty yards or more. Kathryn had to blaze a trail through the treesto try to stay close. Not to worry, Max who is adorable and quite charming when you meet him, found some new friends down the way and was visiting when Kathyrn came up. The third time Kathryn was just trying tget both dogs to lighten their loads before we put them in their kennels so we could go to town. This time Max pulled the collar over his head by backing up. She wasn't to far away and got the dogs moving in the right direction until Max went down a prairie dog hole. I started over to help, but I could see that he wasn't guite ready to go back. I called Pepper and started to run to the cabin with her zooming ahead. Not to be outdone, Max came running after us and - God is good - they both run up the steps to the cabin.
Now Pepper is a little like God. She just wants to be near us andlove us. Max is more like a lot of us and doesn't know what to do with his freedom. God has givien us freedom, it is part of Imago Dei. God is free to be fully God. She uses her freedomto create, restore and bless us and all creation. He gave us free will so that we could choose to love Her, or not. St. John the Evangelistsays the truth will set us free (4:8). Jesus is the truth (Jn 14:6) and Paul says for the purpose of freedom, Jesus set us free.(Gal 5:1). Twelve verses later Paul also says not to use our freedom to sin, to sererate ourselves form God..
Max has not yet received the Gospel. He has received plenty of grace and forgiveness. He senses freedom as doing whatever he wants (and I mean whatever he wants) whenever he wants. When he wants to he can pour on the charm, just ask anyone who knows him. But when he doesn't want to do something, he braces himslef in that three-point stance( the Cowboys oughta take some lessons) and flips his head the other way as if to say, "What, did I hear something? Where did it come from?" And yet like those of us who beleive in God, but haven't completely given ourselves to Him, Max keeps turning around when he is running to see if we are still there. Sometimes he listens, responds, obeys or gives up, and sometimes he doesn't. Then Max is like a cat or a teenager, or if we are honest, like most of us.
God is always seeking to be with us and for us to want and know His presence. But if we keep running away, misusing our freedom, giveing part of ourselves, part of the time, we will not know the closeness, the oneness God offers us.
I CAN'T make Max do what I want him to do.
God WON'T make us do what we don't want to do..
But I won't give up on Max, and God won't give up on us.