Day 6: Learning from Dogs and Kids

     Tonight while I was taking the dog out, he saw something or heard something that bugged him. He got a little tense and was staring intently into the yard a few houses down watching for whatever it was. I didn't see anything. I squatted down to his level and looked in the direction he was looking but there was nothing there that I could see. While I was looking, he came over and sat between my legs. He was still watching but he started to relax. He looked up at me and licked my neck and did his little anxious foot-stomp if my hand wasn't on him. We just sat there in the moonlight for a second. I'm amazed that dogs ask for you to touch them. Every dog in my family does it. They'll sit next to you (or on you) and look back at you pleading. So you give in and pet them, but, as soon as you take your hand away, they look up at you, stomp their feet anxiously, and nuzzle your hand. When they know you love them, they don't want you to take your hand off of them. Children also are constantly wanting affection. They want to sit in your lap, hold you hand, have you pick them up and carry them around, even if they don't know a lot about you. They don't need to know very much before they start loving you and wanting you to love them back. And when it's time to leave, there are always tears because they didn't have enough time with you.
     It feels so good to have my dog come to me and sit at my feet wanting me to pet him, and to have one of my little cousins curl up in my lap just resting there and wanting to spend time with me. I can't keep my arms from hugging them. Shouldn't this be how it is with God? He loves it so much when we come to Him and rest in His arms just wanting to be with Him and feel Him love us. And shouldn't we come to Him just like children, beginning to love Him and wanting to feel Him love us back? And shouldn't there be sadness when we can't spendenough time with our Father? So many times I feel like I'm living under His shadow, trying to push through my day knowing that He's there watching and wanting this or that for me, not because He's a tyrant but because I know what He expects of me and want to do my best for Him. I need to remember to spend time with my Father just letting Him love me, resting in Him and learning to love Him back.