His Eye is on the ... Golden Retriever

My dogs just gave me a funny look. I was out in the backyard performing our morning ritual of feeding, giving them their doggy vitamins and throwing the ball a few times before I head out for work. As I was pouring the food into their pans I was struck with a thought.  Why is their food more expensive than mine … oh, wait … that was my thought another day.  Today’s thought, which I actually spoke out loud, was, “Oh, shoot, I forgot to write my column!”  With that, I made a mad dash for the computer and left one in mid-fetch and the other in mid-something else.

(A clarification here - Some of you may not know that Life Matters has been appearing as a weekly column in my hometown newspaper, the Azle News, since late April of this year.  I submit it to the paper and then typically post it online to the blog after the paper comes out on Thursday.  The timeline usually is irrelevant for blog purposes, but might have made this week a little confusing.  We now return you to the blog already in progress.)

 

I try to get Life Matters done and emailed over the weekend so that it is there in the inbox when the Azle News staff arrives on Monday morning. This weekend was actually not too stressful and there was really no reason to be down to the last minute.  I just plain forgot in the middle of a rare and blissful weekend with nothing on the agenda but some work around the house.

This workweek, however, is going to be as busy and crazy as the last few have been and there is no break in sight for awhile. I’d be willing to bet that a lot of people reading this right now are in exactly the same boat.  Your busy may not look exactly the same as mine, but the end result is the same—full days, heavy responsibilities, limited resources, and a lot of people who are demanding more than their fair share of your time and talents.  Does this sound at all familiar?

How about this?  You get up in the morning and you think about some project you want to attack when you get home at the end of the day.  Then you drag in at the end of the day and all you feel like doing is sitting and your evening is consumed with organizing your thoughts around how busy you will be tomorrow.  Then again, maybe it’s just me.

Man, those dogs have it made!  I look out in my backyard and they are napping in the sun.  Or on these blistering summer days we’ve had, they have dug out a mini backyard canyon in the shade.  Someone shows up and brings them food and checks to be sure they have fresh water.  When the weather is bad, or when there are loud scary noises outside, there is a comfy and safe bed inside.  When they bring a ball to play, somebody will throw it for them.  When they lose the ball, somebody gets them a new one.  I realize all dogs don’t have it made like these.  But these do, because I care about them.  And they are not the least bit worried about their lives.

As I left those dumbfounded hounds in the backyard and wondered what I would write today, these words of Jesus came to me.  

Luke 12:6-7 - "What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.”  

Matthew 6:25-27 - "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"

 

I know Jesus mentioned sparrows, not Golden Retrievers.  But the point is the same.  My life matters to Him and worrying doesn’t make it matter more. Because I know my life matters to Him, I can trust Him to take care of me.  How about you?

Now, I wonder what He wants me to fetch today?