ON THE LOOSE AT NIGHT

Early morning is my best time, so I’m in bed by 9:30 or 10:00 pm.   Sometimes, if I’m wanting to relax before bedtime, I adorn my body with pajamas.   There’s no need for a description….but let me assure you, they’re comfortable.  

My husband was out of town at the time, so it really didn’t matter what time I approached the “sleepy time” position.

I was very tired that evening, and all was well as I lay my head on the pillow.  There was no need for counting sheep.  Then it began, some odd noises.  At first I tried to ignore the sounds, after all I was tired and it was almost eleven at night.  My next thought alarmed me and woke me right up.   My husband wasn’t there to check out the sounds, so I immediately rose and peered out the window.

It didn’t take long to locate the source of the noise.  It was a neighbor around the corner calling out for her dog.   No problem, I thought, if I could hear her calling out, surely her dog would hear and her and begin responding.

This call out to her dog continued on and on and on.  Now I love and enjoy animals, and my mind began to consider heading down the stairs and out our front door to see if two voices calling out would help draw this canine homeward bound.

My goodness, I can’t go out with my pajamas on, can I?   Her plea and calls became more insistent; to the point where my pajamas came along with my body, right down the steps and swirling towards the front door.  

Before I could pause and take the time to really consider what I was doing, I found myself running towards her home.   Let me also say that I grabbed my robe to keep me warm and covered for this pursuit down the street.

The woman was almost in tears when I arrived just 60 seconds after leaping out of my warm, comfortable bed.   “What’s wrong,” I asked.   Her dog had got out of the yard and wouldn’t come home.  I gathered by this information that he wasn’t “street smart” to figure out to where he should return.

Without thinking (who thinks straight after 11 pm anyway), I began not only joining the search, but soon directing the “search and rescue.”   I suggested she grab her car keys, get her car out of the garage, and we’d drive around the neighborhood together.   She must have agreed to the suggestion, because she took off like a startled cat, into the house, and moments later the garage door squeaked open and off we went.   

I prayed silently before her foot made contact with the car’s accelerator asking for God’s help in locating her little furry family friend.

Here’s what the scenario actually looked like.  As she drove, I flung a portion of my body out the window and began yelling out the dog’s name at the top of my lungs.   I can’t remember what his name was; but suffice it to say it appeared as only one syllable, thank goodness. 

Can you imagine if I had to vocalize two syllables in a moving car late at night?  I vowed right then and there that if I encountered a neighbor the following day, and they asked if that was my voice they heard calling out the previous evening, I would deny everything.

We drove around and around the blocks in the community.   With the movement of the car, I found myself repeating her dog’s name about once every 5 seconds.   I’m sure we woke up a number of our neighbors who expected an undisturbed night’s sleep.  If not, we certainly disrupted their attempt to snooze.

I was rehearsing in my mind, “Yes the Lord cares and knows all about this.”   He knows I want to help my neighbor.  After all, if that was our little dog (who also wasn’t street smart) who was lost, I’d give anything if someone gave up the comfort of their home and tried to help me.     Let me insert here, that I did ask the Lord “What would you have me to do?”   In a word, His response was GO!

As I recall the event, she drove, and I yelled out the car window for about twenty minutes.   Then alas, a black furry critter, weighing about 40 pounds came darting towards the car.   My eyes grew like a large marble. “There he is!”   I kept calling out and he came running towards the car.  The dog probably couldn’t believe his eyes. 

We jumped out of the car like jack rabbits as I witnessed a very happy reunion of the dog and the owner.   On the way home, I about burst into tears.  My vocal cords were happy to be silent, and I know the neighbors must have been relieved as well.  I think there may have been a number of neighbors searching for a pen and paper to capture our license plate number about this time.

Upon arriving back at her home, she was so appreciative of my willingness to help her out in this doggie dilemma.   It was only as we got out of the car that she noticed that I was adorned in my bed-time attire, my pajamas and robe.   We laughed ourselves silly, then I walked home.

As my adrenaline started to calm down, I asked the Lord to use this situation for “His glory and His purposes.”   Yes, He can and does use every tiny little thing we do for others.

Yes, He notices, uses and blesses even every miniscule little thing we do for others on His behalf…even looking for dogs in the night.

To make a long story short, the following week I asked her to come to a Christmas program at our church.  She came….and heard about Jesus…..Emmanuel……God with us!

I don’t know how God will use all of this in her life, but I considered it a joy to join in God’s activity in my neighbor’s life….to let her know that God not only wants to “live within us,” but to “help us and walk through” all the events of our lives.

When I finally came home from the excursion around the neighborhood, I got to thinking about why we looked high and low for that dog.   The owner wasn’t content to just call out his name and hope that he would come scurrying home.   She knew the nature of her dog was to roam.   He had no intention of returning and, for a while, he enjoyed the freedom of wandering in new territory.    But after the temperature came down and it got dark, things didn’t look the same in his venture into freedom.

This made me think how God lovingly seeks after us.  He knows our propensity to sin and to run away from Him and His ways.  It’s not in us to seek after God.  He knows that, but because He loves us so much and longs to have a personal relationship with us, He comes looking for us through our lives and in our circumstances…..as messy and lost as they are.

My neighbor friend loved her dog.  This furry critter was valuable to her and that’s why she went looking for him.  Because of her love she wanted the dog home.   In a similar way, it reminds me that God created each of us and we are loved and are of value to Him, so He works in our lives to help us “return home.”  That’s what it means to be saved.   Saved from our sin and its consequences.

A few weeks later, she had me over for tea and when I knocked on the door, you can just about guess who welcomed me like never before.  THE DOG!   If dogs can piece together information, I can imagine his thoughts to be……

“That’s the woman with the megaphone of a voice calling my name all over the neighborhood…..the night I was lost.”