My dog, Jackson, and I lived together for over eight years.  Along this path I discovered parallels between how my dog responded to me and how I want to respond to my God.  Of course, the analogies are incomplete, and not everything that Jackson did was noteworthy as a spiritual lesson. Jumping up on the sofa when I was not in the room, for instance.

Dogs often spend much of their idle time staring at their masters.  Several of my previous dogs have spent significant time watching my every move, but few have approached the commitment to it that Jackson had.

Working from home allows me to spend a lot of time with my dogs.  In my former home in Crookston, MN, my office was in an upstairs bedroom that was part of the old Victorian turret on the front of the house.  On the rounded wall there are three windows that overlook the street.  Jackson had a dog bed on the window seat from which he kept watch on the front yard and the entire block.

He spent about half of his time there dozing in the sunlight and occasionally checking out the action on the street below.   The rest of the time he spent watching me work.  If I went to the kitchen to make coffee or lunch, Jackson followed me there, watching my every move.  It was the same if I went outside to work or sat in the living room to read.

Jackson watched my every facial expression.  If I made even the slightest change in expression, he read that quickly and responded.  He was what I called “scary-intuitive.”

Hebrews chapter 12 begins with these words: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”  

At one point it occurred to me that the kind of fixation Jackson maintained on me is similar to the fixation on our God mentioned in the Hebrews passage .  In this way, Jackson helped helped me to understand the level of fixation our God desires from us.  He desires this fixation in part because He alone is worthy of such a fixation.  Nothing on earth is as worthy.

Our God also desires this level of fixation from us because it is the best life we can live.  When we are fixated upon Him like Jackson was with me, we are able to tap into our best life possible, which is His life lived in us.  This is the life for which we were created, for which we are equipped and connected, and for which we were redeemed.  It is a life of union with our God, one in which we partake of His divine nature (see 2 Peter 1:4).

Like Jackson, I do not want to miss a thing my Master is doing, and I especially do not want to miss any of the fullness of life that comes by a conscious union with Him!