Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Walk (07/20/06)
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TITLE: An Unlikely Angel | Previous Challenge Entry
By David Morey
07/26/06 -
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This verse always drives my imagination. To think that at times we encounter, even entertain, angels is quite remarkable. I find myself wondering if I’ve ever met an angel and if so what need might that angel have served in my life. In fact, I find myself wondering if an angel is taking temporary residence - right now - in my home. If I’m right, he is a most unlikely manifestation of a heavenly host. But, who am I to pass judgment on angelic fashion? Angel or not, however, I will always thank God that he moved in.
China is my angel, perhaps. He is a large, often smelly, and always intrusive Siberian Husky. He was given to us by an ailing neighbor. My teenaged daughter had cared for China often and she and the dog were very fond of one another. Move in day was exciting for my daughter, seemingly uneventful for the dog and a day from which I am yet to recover - even after two years!
A lesson we learned quickly was that Huskies must be walked frequently. Left in our back yard with too much energy, China will quickly begin digging to his namesake or chewing up toys - or tools or me - or terrorizing any and all neighborhood wildlife that unwittingly enters his space. Imagine holding off a yelping dog, in the middle of the night, who is desperately trying to catch the latest critter who’s wandered by. We don’t have to imagine.
So began the new adventure of daily walking, usually more than once, a dog whose calling in life is to run as far and as fast as he can. And, he does so without regard for how far or fast I , or anyone else who attempts to walk him, can run. I’ve been yanked off my feet, pulled through bushes and laughed at by neighbors as I have been drug about at the mercy of a dog who, when it comes to his walk, has little mercy for his human.
As the walking routine developed, my daughter began to join me on the evening romp. At first we just walked (or ran) and laughed (or gasped for breath) and talked about stuff. But, somewhere in the mounting miles we began to talk about more important things. As days melted into weeks we began to know each other more than we ever had before. As weeks became months we became friends. Imagine it! A forty year old man and his fifteen year old daughter really getting along and looking forward to the next nightly dragging because it is our time together.
Before China came I did try to make meaningful connections with my girl. These “dates with Daddy” just didn’t seem to go the way I wanted. Forced connections didn’t work for us. But once we began walking China together, it just happened. I guess all we really needed was enough time and proximity to become friends. For us time brought familiarity which eventually brought trust.
Along the numerous trails in our neighborhood, we’ve laughed and played and cried and sometimes talked of things that dads and teenage daughters usually don’t talk about. But most importantly, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to truly get to know a most remarkable young lady. It scares me to think how easily I could have missed this.
Fathering is as much art as it is science and I’m afraid I’m not much of an artist. I need a lot of heavenly assistance. How divinely artistic would it be for our perfect Father to attach to the end of a four foot leash an angel who would lead my daughter and me to a place we might otherwise have never found? I just have to wonder.
It won’t be long before an intruder comes and steals my daughter away. Be it college or husband or career or whatever, she’ll move on. But I will always cherish the miles that we walked together because of an unlikely angel - or maybe just a smelly dog - who I must now go entertain before he entertains himself by wrecking our kitchen.
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