Biting the Hand that Restores You

We have a friend whose battling cancer right now. She and her husband had an experience with their dog which was full of symbolic meaning for me. Recently, her husband was giving instructions to the dog, but it refused to listen. It ran onto the street directly into the path of an oncoming car. The dog was pretty banged up in the collision, but managed to get up and start walking. When his master tried to reach down and scoop it up to nurse it back to health, it bit down on his hand and then limped off. The dog continued to ignore its master’s calls and ran away to hide. Amazingly, a couple of days later, they found the dog and began giving it the care it needed. All along, the dog’s master only had its well being in mind, but it thought differently. When you see this self-destructive behavior played out in a dog’s life, the folly seems so clear. But doesn’t this mirror us when we go it alone apart from God? We disobey, run away and reject His help.

Just like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we can be deceived to believe that God is not totally good. That for some reason, He is withholding life’s finest blessings. And, when we encounter pain, which is often self-induced, we tend to bite the hand that is reaching to restore us. Today, remember this when you are tempted to drift away: God is really good, all the time. He has your best in mind!

Jesus said, “How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! (Luke 13:34).