The Dog With The Broken Leg B efore we bought our first house, my wife and I lived in a mobile home in the country. One day when we got home from work there was the cutest little dog in our front yard with a broken back leg. She had obviously been hit by a car. We searched and searched for the owner, but no one claimed her. Since we didn’t own a dog we decided to pay a vet $100 to pin her broken leg rather than have her put to sleep. You might say we redeemed her life. We named her Dusty and she became part of the household. She looked like a small version of Walt Disney’s “Shaggy Dog.” We loved her. However, one evening as we arrived home from work we realized that we’d forgotten to let her outside for the day. As we walked in the trailer it looked as though it had been vandalized—by a dog! We had a fluffy pillow which she’d torn up. There was fluff all over the trailer. She had peed and pooped on the carpet. She’d gotten into our collection of records (way before tapes and CD’s) and chewed up many of them. It looked like a war zone. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t get angry easily, but I was mad. I rolled up a news paper, grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, rubbed her nose in the messes, spanked her with the newspaper, and tossed her out the front door. I was thinking to myself, “Is she even worth keeping?”—And then, being the pragmatic guy I am, I thought, “No, I’ve paid too much for her.” Then it hit me. I thought about the price God had paid to redeemme. He became a man in the person of Jesus Christ and shed His own blood to purchase my salvation (Acts 20:28). Then I thought of the parallel, “Do you suppose God will disown me the first time I ‘mess’ up?” And the answer was, “Of course not, He paid too much for me.” He may discipline me (Hebrews 12), but He will never disown me (Hebrews 13:5, John 10:28). I’m His. He paid the ultimate price for me...and you! d
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