Underfoot

"who have purposed to make my steps stumble"

Psalm 140:4

So, the tree is up.  The lights are hung on the eaves, and the stockings on the mantle.  It's fun to see treasures from the past pulled out of boxes and put on display for a month.  A beautiful angel my aunt created years ago... the nativity scene my mother-in-law painted for me even before my husband I were married... not to mention sweet little Christmas crafts my children made when they were young. 

But it does make the house a little crowded.  A little furniture has to be moved to accommodate the Christmas tree, and because of a few of the larger decorations, there's a little less floor space in the house than there was. 

Which means, with my propensity for bumping into things, I need to watch my toes!

The other obstacle in the house is the dog.  Now, she's pretty much always a danger underfoot, but since the house is a bit more crowded than usual, she's even more of a hazard.  And I keep thinking about a friend of mine who owns two dogs, and a conversation we had years ago, about underfoot pets. 

There's a difference between underfoot cats and underfoot dogs.  Cats move slowly, and stop for no reason.  They saunter and stop to clean themselves, and they manage to get their twitching tails under your foot very suddenly.

Dogs on the other hand, just want to be near you.  They run alongside you ~ unless they hear a can opener in the kitchen, in which case they abandon you and head in that direction.

The other thing dogs do, though, in their attempt to be near the one they love, is walk ahead of you.  This is what my friend was talking about, tripping over her dogs and finding herself saying to them, "I have so much to do, and you're in my way!  You don't even know where I'm going ~ why are you in front??" 

I laughed with her because it was so true, but then we talked about maybe God saying the same thing to us.  We want to be near Him ~ we read the Bible and pray and study ~ but still we move ahead of Him, making plans, making decisions, taking steps... and only occasionally looking back to see if He's with us.  We are eager and sincere in our hearts, but foolish in our actions.

My command to my dog should be, "Heel!"

God's command to me?  "Follow."

~ "And when he brings out his own sheep,

he goes before them;

and the sheep follow him,

for they know his voice." ~

John 10:4

~