Keep Your Eyes on the Master

Keeping his eye on his master's face

 
  One fun thing about being out and about is observing  the “slices of life” that happen all around. We wandered along an Oregon beach a few weeks ago, watching the waves roll onto the shore and also watching other people enjoy the sand, the breeze, and the water. Suddenly a long-legged Black Lab galumphed past us, frolicking like a pup but looking back over his shoulder all the time, keeping his eye on the young man with a camera who trotted along behind him. The young man called to the dog, telling him to sit. He posed the dog looking out to sea, then moved away a few feet and squatted to snap the picture. The obedient dog  stayed sitting, but he squirmed in place until he faced his master. I snapped a picture of photographer and subject, and the young man laughed. “I take more pictures of him than anything else,” he said. “And in every one, he’s looking at me.”

    I thought of Sharon, the Irish Setter who was a loving part of our family for fourteen years. We got her when she was a pup and we thought she’d never grow up. Irish Setters are known as the clowns of Dogdom and Sharon was no exception. She was a beauty, and she loved to run. She had the setter characteristic of following her nose, literally. Muzzle to the ground, she’d zigzag across any open space and through the Alaskan woods, in hot pursuit of the scents she’d discovered.

   When we moved to Anchorage, we lived in a house that backed up to a huge storage yard full of lined-up road equipment. Since it was fenced all around the perimeter, we’d let her off leash to run to her heart’s delight. She’d race off to the far end of the yard, then turn to be sure we were still there. When she decided to run around the end of the row, my daughter and I stepped back between two big machines and waited to see what would happen. Moments later we heard her pounding toward us and peeked around the tires. Sharon skidded to a stop at the spot she’d last seen us, stood up on her hind legs and frantically looked around for us. When she spotted us, she dropped to all fours and trotted away as nonchalantly as possible under the circumstances. But after that, she made sure to keep us in view.

    We, too, have a Master who knows how prone we are to trouble if we don’t keep our eyes on him. His words to us:
     When you said, “Seek my face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O LORD, I shall seek.” Psalm 27:8 (NSB)
    Psalm 25:15 My eyes are continually toward the Lord, For he will pluck my feet out of the net.   
  

Sharon the Irish Setter guarding the back yard

Keeping watch for their master