What’s that Sound?

I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. Our basset mix Lina went behind the sectional in the family room and didn’t want to come back out into the room. Finally she peaked her head around the corner and slowly ventured back out into the room, looking this way and that.

After I went out into the kitchen where Vickie was preparing breakfast I saw Lina tentatively make her way down the hallway toward the kitchen, again looking this way and that. She came a few steps into the kitchen and then turned around and went back into the family room. I was particularly concerned with this strange behavior because it appeared to be disorientation, the kind of disorientation I saw in Mitzi (another of our puppies) years ago after a seizure.

Then it dawned on me that she wasn’t disoriented but rather was afraid of something and wasn’t sure where she could go. Vickie was making waffles and the waffle iron emits a beep when waffles are done – much the same as our invisible fence transmits a beep to Lina when she is nearing the perimeter of her yard. Lina was hearing beeps where she shouldn’t hear beeps and it frightened her – she didn’t know where she could safely go, all of a sudden her own home wasn’t safe. She knew that if she persisted in the direction of beeps in her yard that she would receive a “correction” and she didn’t want a “correction” in her house. No wonder behind the sectional seemed like a safe place to hide – that was about as far from the kitchen as she could get. Now we’ve learned to make waffles when Lina is outside.

Our puppies are blessed because for all intents and purposes they don’t know fear; we are stern when we need to be, and we can scold when we need to make a point in the moment; but our home is a safe place for our puppies. How much more should the family of God be a safe place for us all? We need to know the difference between the perimeter and house of God – crossing the perimeter can be dangerous and painful – we have the invisible fence to protect our dogs, not to harm them. But inside our home, well…we want that to be their home too, a home without fear, a home without disorientation, a safe place.