Homeward Bound II

By Scott Cernek

HARVEST HILLS CHURCH

Do you remember the old movie called Homeward Bound? It is the story about a dog and a cat that had gotten lost and had to travel over miles and miles of rugged territory and go through all kinds of harrowing experiences before they finally made it back home.

Well, we had our own mini homeward bound movie this past week. Our 12-year-old black Labrador Retriever, Maggie, who can hardly hear, and has trouble moving from stiff joints, decided to take off on a week-long adventure.

Don’t get me wrong, from time to time Maggie has slipped away for a couple hours to check out the neighborhood, but she usually shows right up at meal time receives a good scolding and nobody thinks much of it. This time however, when she wasn’t home for supper or breakfast the next morning, we started to wonder and worry about her.

I scouted the neighborhood with our other Lab, Duke, who is a three-year old yellow. I was hoping that he would show me that all my days of watching Lassie when I was a kid would prove beneficial, and that he would lead me right to his missing friend. But, no such luck. Instead of putting his nose to the ground and taking off on the trail of Maggie, Duke just seemed to enjoy being out and about.

I put up a couple signs in town and my wife posted a missing dog report on Facebook, and pretty soon many wonderful people were on the lookout. After several days, however, we began to fear the worst that perhaps Maggie had gone off by herself to retire from this life as we had read some older dogs do.

Then suddenly we got a call that a neighbor had seen a black lab south of town along a corn field across the railroad tracks. With hope abounding in my heart, I raced over to the field within about 10 minutes.

I whistled and whistled and searched through tall cattails and weeds for as long as I could, but could not find her. After work, I went back over and searched and searched on my ATV and still there was nothing. I drove around all the neighboring fields, but nothing. Again and again, Duke and I went out and returned home sadly wondering where she could possibly be.

Then we got another call that someone thought they had seen her just east of Beloit near Hart Road. Again, I drove over looking and looking for some trace of our long time pet, but saw nothing.

Finally, one week to the day after she had disappeared, I got a call from another neighbor saying that a friend of theirs found a black lab in their yard west of town about three miles and they had her on a leash.

As I pulled into the driveway my heart sank as the dog they were standing by didn’t look much like Maggie. She was thinner and her face looked different. I got out of the truck and was about to say something like, “well, it looks like someone else must be missing a dog,” when suddenly the dog took a step toward me and started wagging her tail.

Then I noticed the old pink collar around her neck, and as I knelt down her eyes lit up, and I recognized our poor old weary dog. She came right to me and put her face up to mine.

On the drive back home, Maggie crawled up on my lap and just laid her head down as the rest of her body was shaking.

She was exhausted. I have to admit, I shed a few tears and thanked the Lord for being so good to us. My wife was overjoyed as I surprised her with the news. She cried and cried and hasn’t stopped spoiling Maggie since.

She hasn’t been outside much in the last couple days, and she stays right by our sides. In fact, as I write this she is right at my feet sleeping peacefully.

The whole story reminds me of Jesus’ words in Luke 15:4-7, “Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’”

Jesus is searching for each of us to give our hearts to Him, and when we do there is great rejoicing in heaven for one lost soul.Thanks for your help everyone.

Until next week, God bless.