Found this excerpt from Dave Bruno's 100 Thing Challenge in this morning's e-mail. "Faith is not an option for humans. I like what Wendell Berry says about it: "Our instinct for faith is like a well-bred Border collie, who, lacking cattle or sheep, will herd children or chickens or cats. If we don't direct our faith toward God or into some authentic 'way' of the soul, then we direct it towards progress or scientce or weaponry or education or nature or human nature or doctors or gurus or genetic engineers or computres or NASA."
The analogy resonates with me in memories of the only Border Collie we owned, an 80 pound bundle of brains and brawn that grew up with our kids. He was a constant companion to the six of them for 12 precious years. But when the last one headed off for school, Mischief found another way to make himself useful.
About a block from the house there was a duck pond surrounded by a low fence. Inside the fence were a few somewhat scraggley mallard half-breeds, a couple of swans, and a beautiful male wood duck, that, blown off-course by some winter storm had decided to make his home in our little town.
One afternoon, a local deputy stopped my husband to tell him this story. Seems that Mischief had developed the habit of jumping the fence around the pond and quietly working the waterfowl until they were bunched together on the "beach" and holding there until he was tired of the game. On this particular morning, a new duputy had seen the big dog leap over the fence, and, assuming the worst, unholstered his wepon to take care of the problem canine. We were very thankful that there was another officer with him, one who could set the record straight. Great story, but the lesson is one we all need to learn, and learn well. Where is your faith today?
No comments:
Post a Comment