Sometimes I see things on Facebook I wish I hadn’t seen. Last night I watched a van full of caged beagles set free from a laboratory that used them for animal testing. None of these beagles had ever been outside of a cage, and to see them emerge from an open cage and gingerly step on to grass for the first time couldn’t keep tears from my eyes. Seeing them caressed by rescuers, for the first time run and play with other formerly caged beagles was a joyful sight. Watching them move from fear and apprehension, and seeing how quickly they adapted, running freely with tails wagging and pointing to the sky, was a joy to behold. On second thought, I am glad I watched that video.
I talk often of our beagle, Bosco, who lived his first three years as a test animal in a lab. It is difficult to explain his timidity with me, but this video helped me again to understand. It isn’t that he doesn’t like me, but was conditioned by years of being poked and prodded and confined. He has been more timid with me than I would have liked, but that is changing and my patience with him has been worthwhile. Even if he never warms up to me like he does to Roxanne, watching that video reminds me what he has been through. It is more important to me that he is free and loved than how he acts toward me.
I share that to make a greater point. To an incredibly more infinite degree God’s patience with each of us is made even more clear to me as I think about my waiting for Bosco. We must be careful about assigning human attributes to the awesomeness of God, but his patience is like me waiting for Bosco to embrace more fully the freedom and love we have offered to him. God, on a grander scale, deals with us in more perfect fullness, but his patience with our fears, distractions, and the baggage of broken lives in an imperfect world mean that we don’t always realize how powerful is the undeserved gift of his grace.
We are all timid in our willingness to love others, selfish in what we expect from others, and slow to forgive as we have been forgiven. But God never quits waiting in love to welcome us with the warmth of his incredible love. The cage of sin has conditioned us in damaging ways that can only be inflicted by sin and death. And yet, from prophetic times to the climactic victory of Jesus on Easter, God had patiently, lovingly, and tenderly beckoned us out of the shadows of our imperfections and selfishness which are like bad dreams we cannot shake. He opens the door for us to join him in the wonderful freedom of life in green pastures and still waters. We don’t always act as we should, but God never gives up on the patience, as his love allows him to wait over and over again for us to romp in the playground of his love. His patience knows no bounds and is the power of his love (and our peace!)