My dog watches TV! Yes, you read that right, he literally loves watching television! Silliest thing we’ve ever seen. And get this, his favorite show is “Gunsmoke” with Matt Dillon and Chester, Dock, Kitty, and Festus! He loves Gunsmoke. It’s true, a forreal- television western watching dog! It’s not a casual glance at the TV screen, but a “sit down on all fours with his front legs crossed and his ears sticking up and his eyes glued on the big screen”. We don’t have one of those giant screens, but it’s a good size, one that really catches his attention. And whenever he sees horses on television, he stands on his hind legs, puts his front feet on the gas fireplace, and tries to get to the horses! Sometimes he growls, sometimes he’s full-fledged barking, but he is trying his best to get to the people or the animals that are on the screen. One show we saw recently was about a huge Boeing 727, the kind with a two-story section at the front where the first class travelers can go up the winding stairs and have a cocktail. As the story goes, the plane, full of people, got struck by lightning and “fried” the pilot and co-pilot, somehow leaving the plane on auto-pilot. This left a former pilot, a male stewardess, and a female stewardess “in control” of flying the plane, but really, no one was flying it, it was on auto-pilot! And there happened to be a Rottweiler on board and when this massive dog lunged at the main male star, the former pilot, my hound dog started his barking,”Ruff! ruff-ruff, ruff-ruff-ruff-ruff!” I mean, he would have gone after that dog if he could have! The thing is, my dog is not what you call a “big dog”. He is an American Bulldog and stands at one foot tall at his body and about a foot and a half tall at the top of his head, but he is strong, and he is alert, and he is actively barking or attacking at whatever he sees on the screen. The best we can figure is that he thinks the TV screen is a window and some strange person or animal is trying to get in and he is there to protect us! Demonstrates his attentiveness to us, doesn’t it? “These are my people and no one nor is any animal going to get to them!” “Ruff! ruff-ruff-ruff-ruff!”
He started his television watching during the Christma season. We would sit in the living room in our favorite chairs, with the fireplace going, tv trays, and coffee or water before us, and enjoy the seasonal Christmas shows. Well, Jimmy Stewart’s all time favorite movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was showing, and you know the part where his character is outside of his mother’s boarding house and she has no idea who he is, neither does his wife, of course he is not married at the point because he “wished that he had never been born!” Enter Clarence, the angel who is trying to earn his wings. Anyway, Jimmy Stewart is outside the boarding house and has absolutely no idea what is happening to him, and we see a close-up of his face with his eyes as wide and as wild as can be. When my dog saw that, he ran to my side, trying to hide, but in “attack mode”, barking at the character and saying, “No! In no way are you going to get to my masters! That’s not about to happen, not while I’m around!”, in dog-language you understand? “Ruff! Ruff-ruffruff-ruff!” We’re cracking up but he is “protecting us from any harm”. Good dog. Funny dog, but good dog. It’s hilarious, but real stuff to him!
The Bible tells us to “Watch out, for your adversary, the devil, is like a hungry, roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour.” (I Peter 5:8) You know, when a pride of lions go hunting for prey, say a herd of wild deer, antelope, or even giraffes, they don’t first attack in mob fashion, they divide up and each group goes a different direction. They split up and then let their loud roars be heard so they can split up the herd. And if you’ve ever heard a lion’s roar, you don’t want to hear it on a lonely street somewhere. What you will do is exactly what they want their prey to do, that is to “freeze” right where they stand. They want to paralyze the deer or antelope so they won’t know where to turn, and when they do start running, it’s the slowest ones of the group that get pounced on and become the first meal for the evening. The devil wants us to do the same, to freeze in our steps, to paralyze us with fear so that we don’t know where or which direction to run. You’ve been there. “Oh my, what am I going to do? I don’t have the finances, I don’t know the answers, I don’t know who to turn to”, and the devil has us right where he wants us. Frozen in fear. But God says, “Fear not, for I am with you. My rod and my staff will protect you. Resist the devil and he will flee from you, draw near to me, and I’ll draw near to you. Then see what I can do.” The next time the devil “roars” at you, you tell him “I’m not listening to you. My God shall supply all my needs and He is rich in glory and owns the cattle on a thousand hills, He will see me through like He’s done before.” Try that on the devil and mean it with all your heart, and see what God will do, won’t you?
