It dawned on me as I stood in the rain with our new dachshund puppy, Lizzy-Farrar, how much I have in common with her. In short week we have had her, she is still learning to mess (pee & poop) in the yard & not in the house, that gnawing on the electrical cord cannot be tolerated, everything is not her toy, the leash has a limit and happiness is not guaranteed. In short, Blessings follow obedience & correction/consequences follow disobedience.

This is not a new concept. In fact, it started at God’s Farm, the Garden of Eden, when God formed man, Adam, and placed him in the Garden to be His manager. Years later God spoke through Moses in Deuteronomy 6:1-3 with clarity, “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.”

As I look back, my stubborn & stiff-necked attitude toward God, like the early Israelites & even sweet Lizzy-Farrar, has resulted in me being jerked at the end of the leash…being broken. God has limits. God cannot, nor will not tolerate sin, in His presence. It is so serious God inspired Paul to tell us in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death…” God is the God of Justice and He is the God of Mercy & Grace. Because He desires a forever relationship with us, we can claim John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

It all comes down to the choice…I, like the Israelites & sweet Lizzy-Farrar, have learned, God is in control. Jesus tells us in John 14:6 what this means, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” When we accept Him…when we listen, follow & obey, God’s desire for us found in Deuteronomy 6:3 becomes a reality, “that it may go well with you”.

“Going well” for me…well, as I write this TGN, sweet Lizzy-Farrar lays sleeping in my lap. For me, that’s where I want to be with my Heavenly Father, in His lap, at rest in His Love.