Last week my adorable, sweet dogs ran away from home… for the twentieth time. Late in the evening, they found a critter in the back yard (a bird, a cat, a deer – who knows?) and were overcome with a desire to chase. They came home the next evening - panting and exhausted - and covered in Tennessee ticks. These ticks were strategically positioned on these suffering animals in places a forty year old mom should never have to stick her tweezers. Days later while on a spring break vacation in Park City, Utah, I pulled my trusty tweezers out one more time to remove a souvenir tick firmly embedded in my own forty year old booty. Definitely a new low.
As I gently performed surgery on my little hitchhiker, I considered the many times I anxiously waited for my poodles to come home. Were they cold? Did they meet an untimely death with a pack of coyotes? What if they crossed Wilson Pike and collided with the midnight train? As the struggling little tick fought the sucking gravity of the drain I realized, I am going to do this again – probably sooner rather than later. Defying the laws of nature and man, these prissy, but country French Poodles have more than doubled a lucky cat’s nine lives. Naughty to the bone, they always make it back home.
I tried in vain to stay furious with them. I considered the vet bills, the grooming fees (“tick picking” doesn’t come cheap!) and emotional turmoil – but it was fleeting. Eventually, they wormed their fluffy bodies back into my home and into my heart. All was forgiven, but not forgotten. Then the proverbial light bulb came on in my soul - the kind of self-actualizing realization that happens once in a lifetime. Is forgiveness a mandate from God? Do I have to forgive in order to be forgiven by the Man upstairs? And the answer according to Christian scripture and many universal doctrines is most emphatically, yes.
A frustrated man asked Christ in the book of Matthew – “How many times should I forgive my brother?” I imagine him in a huff adding, “SEVEN?” Jesus would be gentle but firm in his reply, “Oh no, no, no… How about seventy TIMES seven?” (Matthew 8:21) Paul later reminds us in Colossians 3:13 to “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may against one another.” Paul realized very quickly that failure to forgive another’s imperfection was to deny his own. And Paul most certainly was not perfect. He enthusiastically hunted down early Christians and martyred many for what he thought was right.
So, each time these gorgeous but oh-so-devious dogs of mine feel the call of the wild and leave home, I reflect on my own imperfections. As you can imagine – I have been doing a lot of reflecting. I can’t forget or dismiss the grief and annoyance they cause. As people of character we are called to forgive, but we are most definitely not called to be doormats. Out of love and concern for these animals and my own piece of mind, I have initiated “Operation Alcatraz” for Jolie and Juliette in my backyard (I am meeting with a fence guy today).
In our humanness remember that though we can’t forget past wrongs at times, God most certainly does! (See Micah 7:19) He removes our iniquities from us when we truly repent of unrighteousness. Take heart dear friends, and be generous in forgiveness and stingy with regret!
