Walkabouts with Jake

I don't think I've mentioned my sweet Jake in this blog before, but he has played an incredibly significant role in my journey. Jake is a Bichon Frise with big brown eyes and a little black nose, white curly hair and a long tail that he carries curled on his back. I call him, "my little human dressed in a dog suit".

I'm pretty sure that if it weren't for this precious dog, I may very well have not survived the early months of my journey. As long as he was in my care, I would not jeopardise him by jeopardising myself, although the desperation I felt led me to consider it. That's not the point of this blog, however.

I live in a neighborhood with lots of hills and bends, and great sidewalks which Jake loves to travel as often as possible. We go on walkabouts pretty much every day, sometimes twice a day. One day, we took the long road out of the neighborhood and walked along the main road for a bit.

We were startled by two very large, loud and intimidating dogs charging up to us. We both jumped even though there was a fence separating us from what we thought was impending danger.

I scooped my scared little guy up into my arms and put myself between him and the barking dogs until we got beyond their yard. After which, I put him back down as we continued on our way.

This scenario made me think about how the enemy often does that - he'll charge us with his loud and intimidating bark, but as children of God, there is a fence between us and him. He can only go so far with this threat. Ultimately, he can do us no harm at all.

But we are human, and sometimes we get startled, shaken and downright scared. It is in those moments when I believe Jesus reaches down and scoops us up into His loving arms. He has already positioned Himself between us and the imposed threat. We are safe. Satan may have a big bark - but that's about the end of it thanks to the work of Jesus.