Got Mud?

 






As I have said, I’ve always had a pet of some kind. When we decided to get a new dog, we searched different breeds. We looked at their temperaments, what their needs would be, the time they would require from us. And when we settled on one, we settled on Golden Retrievers. We already had a golden before so we thought for what we were looking for this breed would be a fit for us.

Then we set out on looking for a good reputable breeder and we found a gem! We paid our deposit and received pictures of our new baby. I was so excited when it was time to pick her up. We picked up our Stella and I was immediately in love with her. She had coal black eyes that looked like liquid pools of love. It was a match. She promptly planted a big wet kiss on my face and I was in heaven.

Stella is a brilliant dog – one full of love and life. Now while in my mind Stella was near perfect there was one thing that she loved almost as much as me and that was MUD!! Her mother loved mud and her grandmother loved mud. I’m pretty sure if we traced back to the beginning we would see lots of mud in the line. She not only loved mud she loved to roll in the mud, dig in the mud, root in the mud. Good thing she loved water and baths equally as mud. I found bath time for Stella was almost a daily routine. I hated to see rain because I knew the moment she went out she would dig to find – you guessed it MUD! She didn’t only find existing mud she would work rather hard to create the environment so mud would appear when it rained. Then her joy began. You could call her and her obedient nature would come running, but the disobedient nature in her would take in one last roll before doing so.



                                                               


I had her on lead one day walking her to the kennels. She had been clean for 4 whole days – a new record in our home! So I gently explained on the way to the kennels that she was a show dog. She was better than mud. She shouldn’t lay in mud, roll in mud, root in mud or even go near mud. She wasn’t created for mud she was created for far better things. “You Stella are a Show Dog – created for better things”.

But aren’t we created for far better things as well? Sometimes we forget whose we are – who we belong to and we search for mud. Sometimes we work rather hard to even create the environment to make mud to lie in. We like to lay in mud, roll around in it and root through it.

 

 

God is so gracious to clean the mud off us. He gently takes His holy scrub brush and cleanses us from all mud. He continually forgives us for our mud behavior. But shouldn’t we strive for less mud in our lives?

Children of God were created to do better things than to lay in the mud of the world. Have we so quickly forgotten the price that was paid so we could wear His robe of righteousness and claim our identities in Him? Have we forgotten that we are:

• Fearfully and wonderfully made 
  Psalm 139:14 (NASB95)
  ¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

Approved by Him

2Corinthians 13:7 (NASB95)
7 Now we pray to God that you do no wrong; not that we ourselves may appear approved, but that you may do what is right, even though we may appear unapproved.

1 Thessalonians 2:4 (NASB95)
4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts.

The apple of His eye

Zechariah 2:8 (NASB95)
⁸ For thus says the Lord of hosts, “After glory He has sent Me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.

Deuteronomy 32:10 (NASB95)
¹⁰ “He found him in a desert land, And in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye.

 

His Treasure

Deuteronomy 14:2 (NKJV)
² For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the  Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Not condemned 
Romans 8:1 (NASB95)
¹ Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The aroma of Christ
2 Corinthians 2:15 (NASB95)
¹⁵ For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;

  Redeemed 

Luke 1:68 (NASB95)
⁶⁸ “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people,
  Ephesians 1:7 (NASB95)
⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace

Romans 3:24–25 (NASB95)
²⁴ being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; ²⁵ whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;

  …and the list can go on.

As Stella has matured, she is less enamored by mud. Perhaps she has finally outgrown mud. Perhaps she has seen that it is less productive to her daily routine. I take that lead from her as well. As time passes, the world’s mud attraction has grown less and less in my life. Perhaps I’ve grown up a bit, learned His word, understood whose I am and claimed my identity in Him. Yes as I walk past the world’s mud I have less inclination to walk through it. Less rooting and laying, yet knowing that if I fall into it He is faithful to cleanse me from it – again. (1 John 1:9) I too am less enamored by the world.

Just sitting at His Feet….