This morning Ginger yanked the leash out of my hand as we walked out the front door. There was a cat across the street. Ginger went from 0 to 60 in two seconds.
But I yelled "Stop!" and I was stunned when she turned back towards me immediately.
She has come a long way in two years.
In Haiti, she roamed the mountainside every day while my family and I were at Cap-Haitien Christian School. She knew nothing of leashes.
Until the day she left Haiti. The first time she ever broke free from a leash was at the airport in Florida. She has a skinny head, so it didn't take her long to discover that if she turned around and backed away from me, her collar would slip off over her head.
Melissa and I stopped at a Walmart to buy her a harness that wrapped around her chest before we drove north towards Indiana.
Of course, a dog has no clue that the leash is there to keep her close to her owner's side. That it's a dangerous world full of speeding cars. That it's possible to get lost and never find your way back to your family's house.
After a year and a half in Indiana, Ginger loves the leash. When she sees me reach for it, she goes wild. For pure enjoyment, in her mind, there is nothing that even compares to exploring the neighborhood by my side.
After this morning's incident, I can actually imagine a time when I could unconditionally trust her to walk by my side without the leash. A time when she has become so obedient that she doesn't even need the leash any longer. (A few years from now.)
We could do away with the leash because "by nature" she would be doing what the leash was meant to insure.
I am just starting a deep dive into the book of Romans and I haven't yet reread Paul's whole discussion of the Law and what role it plays in the believer's life. I - like many others - have always had a hard time wrapping my brain around what he teaches.
But this morning it occurred to me: maybe God's law is like the leash...
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