The Obedience of a Dog

Archibald Rutledge tells about a man who worked in one of the great forests of the South. His faithful dog burned to death in a great fire that had swept through the forest. Rutledge said the little dog had been left under a tree to guard his master’s dinner pail and wouldn’t leave it even when the flames roared around him. The worker was brokenhearted when he found the charred remains of his little friend. With tears streaming down his face, he said: “I always had to be careful what I told him to do, because I knew he would do it.” This, and more, is the kind of obedience to which Christ has called us.