A Cry in the Night

"Have you seen Pebbles?" my husband asked worriedly about the family dog as he came in from outside. It was getting dark, and Howard's "porch time" was getting a little chilly. I told him I hadn't seen her for a good while.

"I heard a faint barking," he said, "I think it was coming from the chicken house. I'd better go down there and check." The little dog loves to accompany him while he feeds the chickens and has been known to be accidentally locked up with them at night.

"She's not down there," Howard announced when he came back, alarm in his voice,"but I still hear barking!" He alerted our grandson, Adam, who treasures this little pet. Adam dashed out into the night, and soon burst in the door with Pebbles.

"She was in the storage shed!" he exclaimed breathlessly.

What? That building was outside the fence and down the hill in the pasture! We had been in there that afternoon looking for some stored autumn decor I wanted, but the dog wasn't with us! Apparently she was, unknown to us! That had been hours ago, and to think she had been in there barking non-stop all this time!

Thankfully, Howard had heard her, though I don't know how, considering his hearing. Surely God made him aware of the cry in the night air!

I was reminded of an incident several weeks ago when our newborn baby goat disappeared, only to be found at nightfall when her plaintive bleats were heard. She had been imprisoned in a depression she had fallen into under a pile of boards!

I was experiencing deja vu from that time when our son, Greg, rescued the little goat and carried her triumphantly to safety. Now his son, Adam, was the savior of his beloved pet!

Jesus gave the story of the lost sheep, and how the shepherd left the 99 to search after the one. As much as our animals are loved, He loves us even more, and reaches out to the lost among us.

As it says in John 6:39, "And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day."

I Peter 2:25 reminds us, "For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."