Re-call

This has been a week of winter! After imagining for so long that it would never come, there is no doubt that it's here. The fields around our house look like a frozen ocean, the snow forming choppy waves and ripples and interesting textures. This week as I drove home towards the end of one cold day with the bright sun sinking in the west; it shone over the fields, reflecting back light from the shiny surface that looked as if it were a thin, crisp coat of sugar icing.

Brenda has taken Molson out for some long walks in the woods. He's getting into shape for a dog show and needs to lose a little weight, so extra running helps. He is in heaven in the woods, tracking the scent of deer, picking up sticks and tossing them and running free!

This morning we sat around our big oak table after breakfast. The kitchen was warm and filled with bright sunlight and the fragrant aromas of coffee and pancakes. As we sipped our coffee, Brenda told me how she uses the runs in the wood to train him. "I will call out, "Hey!" as he runs," she said, "And he will stop in his tracks and listen for my voice. Then I either say,"Come," or, "Okay" "(which means he can go).

She said she also uses the command to stop him from going down the wrong path. "It's called re-call," she said.

I thought about our relationship with God and how clear it is that he has a path for us and offers us his guidance if we only seek it. Sometimes he uses "re-call" when we head down a wrong path. Molson can teach me something about having an attentive ear to a

Master who knows the way when I don't.

Psalm 32:9 (New International Version)
9 Do not be like the horse or the mule,

which have no understanding

but must be controlled by bit and bridle

or they will not come to you.