We have three dogs. We never thought we would utter those words. But my gracious husband has caved into the addition of each one.  And our household has not had a dull moment since.

Each one of them has their own personality.  Jessie, a ten-year-old golden retriever, has become the Eeyore of the clan.  She moves slowly and has no desire to roll around  and wrestle with the other two.  But her sweet and patient nature wins people over every time.

Maybe, a black lab mix, is nine months old and has enough energy to light up an entire town. She’s clumsy and runs into and over things with every step. She thinks she is a 50 lb. lap dog and is a lover to the core.

Then there’s my little Lilly. A nine month old Morkie.  She’s a precocious little thing that has no idea she only weighs six pounds.  She wrestles with Maybe and pushes buttons to get a reaction.  Everything to her is a game and she loves to snuggle.

I took each of them for a walk this morning.  And it hit me that each of them, with their individual personalities has a different reaction to the same thing….FENCES.

Jessie is too old and too heavy to jump our fence.  But before our fence was built, if she got free, she would take off running.  If someone forgets to latch the gate, she will just give it a gentle nudge and out she goes.  She no longer runs, but she wanders around the neighborhood looking for kids to play with and ends up far from home.  Even when we look and eventually find her, she is resistant to go back home to her fenced yard.

Then there’s Maybe who sees someone walk by and with a single leap clears the fence to go greet them.  But she doesn’t run off. Immediately, she gets this look on her face like, “Uh oh.  What did I just do?”  She comes straight back to the gate or goes and waits to be let in at the front door.  (For some reason she hasn’t figured out that she can jump back over the fence into the yard.)  The other day she jumped the fence and we weren’t aware of it.  Abby walked around the neighborhood calling and crying for her lost dog, only to find her lying right next to the side of the house, outside the fence but close to home.  Still, she needed to come back inside the fence.

Today on our walk, Lilly who was walking on my right, would pull in close behind me every time she came near to a construction area where there was a temporary orange or black plastic fence along the side of the sidewalk.  When we would pass it, she would come back up to join me at my side and we’d go on our merry way.  When she is at home, she is perfectly happy to be in her little fenced yard. (But, of course, she is a dog and if let out the front door will run like the wind!)

The fence around our yard is important.  It’s meant to protect our dogs and to prevent them from getting hurt or lost.  Based on their different personalities, they all have a different reaction to the same fence.  But how they each “feel” about the fence doesn’t change the fact that the fence is there for a reason.  Because we care about them.

I think, as humans, we respond similarly to the boundaries that God has put in place for us because He loves us.  We either, like Jessie, look for a way around them or out of them and go as far as we can until we get caught or until our Master graciously directs us back home.  Or, like Maybe, we wait right at the fence and jump when we see an opportunity and have no intention of going far from home, but are still a little over the boundary line and put ourselves at risk by being outside the safety of the God-designed hedges of protection.  Then there are those that stay away from the fence, and like Lilly, lean in closer to the Master when they get too close to the fence line.

I have to admit, though my goal is to have a response like Lilly’s, I am too often more in the Maybe category.  I like pushing the boundaries a bit.  I have no intention of “running off”, but choose my own attitudes and actions that put me in a place of compromise – outside the protection of my “fence”.

My prayer is that my desire to be more “Lilly-like” will grow a little bit each day.  Leaning away from the fence and closer to my Master.  I want to fully enjoy the amazing freedom that I have within the grace covered hedges of protection.  There is no fear in that place. No danger. No possibility of getting lost or distracted.  It’s where my heart belongs.  It is home.

John 10:9-11 – I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Psalm 34:7 – For the angel of the LORD is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him.

Psalm 16:6 – The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.