I remember back in my youthful days when I had just finished a tour in the U. S. Navy and returned to the Charleston area.  I got a job at a local plant and established a residence in a house owned by an Uncle.  My Uncle was a chicken fancier and had a  beagle pup that was about six months old.  That pup didn’t like the chickens and had roughed a couple of them up near to the point of killing them.  I probably saved the pup’s life when I agreed to take him and keep him as my own.      I had never been an avid hunter but all of a sudden I had a beagle dog whose purpose in life was to hunt rabbits.  I called a friend who had a couple of beagles that were pretty fair rabbit dogs and asked him if he would like to take his dogs out for some practice hunting (it was not hunting season) and allow me to take my pup out for some training.  I thought it would be good for him to observe the other dogs and learn from them.  I had only had the pup for a week or two and I had not given him a name, nor had my Uncle.     We took the dogs to the area where the Southridge Center now stands and turned them loose to find the rabbits.  We hadn’t been there for more than five minutes when my pup stuck his nose into a clump of broom sage, right into a rabbits nesting place.  I happened to be watching him closely at the time and he was so shocked that his long ears stood straight up to full extension and he took off after the rabbit, yipping away.  This quickly brought the experienced dogs and they took up the chase very efficiently, leaving my pup behind, but still following and yipping.      At this same period of time, there was a television show, starring Jackie Cooper and a beagle dog named Cleo.  Certain events would happen on the show and the beagle would show his surprise by raising both of his long ears to their full upward extension.  This always brought lots of laughter from the audience and I wondered how they got his ears to stand up like that.  I suspected that they used some small thread that was invisible to the cameras but regardless of how they managed it, it was popular and the show lasted longer than most sitcoms.       Of course, after seeing my pup’s reaction, he could never be called anything other than Cleo.  My friend who owned the experienced dogs told me that he was very impressed with the way my pup, having never been hunting before, had jumped the rabbit and joined in the chase.  This pleased me and I felt a sense of pride that only owners of hunting dogs can appreciate.  I started hunting on a regular basis with my friend and some other friends that had beagles.  During the hunting season, we could be found most Saturdays out in the briers and bramble hunting rabbits with our dogs.      Cleo became very efficient quickly and by the time he was one year old, he was clearly the outstanding dog in our group.  I think I can safely say that he personally jumped ninety percent of the rabbits.  Cleo had one devastating fault.  He had the hardest head of any dog that ever lived.  Part of his independent hunting was due to my inexperience in training him, but some of it was inbred, because I was told that his mother had been equally impossible to control.  He hated to ride in a car and we routinely made long trips to Jackson County where rabbits were plentiful.  As long as we were going away from the car, he was fairly manageable but when we turned and started back in the direction of the car, he was on his own.  He would not respond to my repeated calling and wouldn’t allow me to get close enough to put a chain on his collar.  After chasing, grumbling, and threatening to shoot him, I sometimes managed to get him back to the car.  However, on several occasions, I left him in the remote woods in Jackson County, not caring at the time if I ever saw him again. By the next day, I would repent and drive back to Jackson County where I had last seen him and find him.  He would be tired and hungry and I could catch him and take him home.  Cleo’s fatal flaw was loving to chase rabbits too much and failing to heed his master’s voice.       My wife was looking through some old photos a while back and she found a good picture of Cleo, now dead many years, and she put the picture in a special frame and put it on my desk.  When I saw the picture it brought back all of the memories and I wished I could have him back.  As I thought of Cleo’s failures, it caused me to think of our relationships with God.  I know that God loves us more than I loved Cleo because He gave His only begotten Son to save us.  As I was pleased with the performance of Cleo, I am sure there are times when God is pleased with us, especially when we ask Him to save us and He welcomes us into His family.  I am equally sure there are times when we displease God, pursuing things that are pleasurable to us, going places and doing things that God doesn’t want us to do.  Like Cleo, we don’t obey our Master’s voice.  God loves His children so much that He would never consider leaving us in the remote woods of Jackson County.  In Hebrews 13:5, He promises to never leave us or forsake us.  I used to have to take a long drive to get Cleo back.  But that is not so with God.  No matter how far we are from Him, how badly we have behaved, how ashamed we feel, or how much we have disobeyed the Master’s voice, His warm, comfortable, tender bosom is only a prayer away.

Gene Monk © 2003 Bible Center Church Back To Main Page / Archive of Previous Articles