Two Dog Observations And A Question

While exercising during my morning walk, I observed two men with their dogs at the local park. One man had a leash on his dog, while the other man had no leash on his. My observation of the dog with the leash was that he was walking his master instead of the other way around (too many distractions).

He would walk a few feet, find an interesting place to do his business, and while he was doing his business, his master had to wait until that business was finished. Then the dog started walking to another interesting place not far from the first interesting place, and engage in the same procedure. This dog was obviously smarter than his master, because he was totally in charge of his destination, thus overriding any wishes of the master. Mankind is like the above dog. He wants to be in charge of his own destination instead of allowing God (his Master) to be in charge (see here), finding out very quickly that his inability to direct himself to that destination only leads to a "dead end" (Jeremiah 10:23; Proverbs 14:12).

My second observation was that of the dog with no leash. His master obviously trusted his dog to (1) stay within the bounds of the park, not getting into the surrounding roadway and (2) to always return to his master, not venturing too "far" from him (Luke 15:11-13). The dog would run approximately three hundred feet or so -- stop -- turn around -- and quickly return to his master (see here). And unlike the first observed dog, did not do any "business" of any kind.

This intelligent dog realized that his master was the source of his sustenance as well as his well-being, and as such, was faithful in always returning to his master, not venturing too far away (He was only interested in obeying the will of his master rather than his own (Matthew 7:21; Romans 6:17-18). Our Master has set boundaries for us as well (Acts 17:24-28), solely designed so that we will not want to venture too far from His tender loving care, always desiring to be obedient to His will (Matthew 26:39).

Beloved, from the two above observations, which dog would we "choose" to be? (Joshua 24:14-15).

---Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets