Cinder was a Dalmatian puppy with a spot on her nose that was in the shape of a heart. True to the heart-shaped spot, she turned out to be a loving companion.
After we picked out the puppy we wanted from the litter of squirming spotted pups, the owner ran a little test for us. She put Cinder in a separate room, walked out of the room, and then called to her. The reason she did this is because some Dalmatian puppies are born deaf, and she wanted to be sure Cinder could hear. Cinder heard her call and came running.
While Cinder was still young, my wife took on the time-consuming job of boundary- training her. If Cinder strayed beyond the boundary of our large yard, she would be scolded and told to “stay home.” Eventually Cinder learned her boundaries and didn’t have to be tied up. She could then wander about the yard in safety.
My wife then took her to obedience school and was discouraged that Cinder would not “heel” for her. The trainer said that possibly Cinder was too young. But one day we were walking in the grass beside a road when Cinder got too far ahead of us. I called in a loud voice, “CINDER, HEEL!” She wheeled around and came back and fell in place at my left side. She knew what “heel” meant all right, but she needed a stern voice to make her obey.
Those of us who belong to the Lord Jesus often want to go our own way, even when we know His Word tells us not to. Then He sometimes has to get our attention by using a stern voice to keep us walking in His way.
When I kissed my wife good-bye before going to work, Cinder would came stand on her hind legs and place her front paws gently on my chest, wanting her good-bye too. Every morning she would sniff my trousers, and if I had on my yard jeans, she would wag her tail. She knew I would be home with her that day.
When I rode my bicycle on our country roads, Cinder liked to run beside me. One warm afternoon we went about two miles, and on the way home, I noticed she was running in the grass and limping badly. I stopped the bike and got down to examine her feet. To my dismay, I found the center pad on the bottom of each foot had a split in it. We went home slowly with her limping slowly and painfully. I thought I should bandage the wounds, but the animal doctor said to keep her quiet and leave the wounds open. This way Cinder could keep them clean by licking them. She limped around for several weeks, and the pads eventually healed up.
As I think about Cinder’s painful injury, I think of One who suffered far more terribly than Cinder’s suffering. Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, said in Psalm 22:1616For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. (Psalm 22:16), “They pierced My hands and My feet.” At His crucifixion, soldiers stretched Him out on a cross of wood and pounded big iron nails through His hands and feet. Then they lifted up that cross and dropped it into a hole. But it was in the three hours of darkness that He suffered the most, when God placed upon His perfect, sinless Son the sins of all who would accept Him as their Savior. At the end of those three hours, He cried out, “It is finished,” and He gave up His life. What love was told out on that cross—God’s love to us and Christ’s love to His Father and to us.
But the grave could not hold Him. He rose from the dead, and His disciples saw Him alive, and they saw the wounds from those nails in His hands and feet. All those who believe in Him will see those nail wounds in our blessed Lord when He takes us home to heaven.
Will you be there to see them?
ML-04/14/2019