Lily The Lost Dog

Yesterday morning on the trail in the Juniper Forest desert east of town, Jake and I encountered a human walker we hadn’t see before. He was younger, maybe early to mid-forties, than the typical walker on the trails out there at that time of day. And he was alone! He didn’t have a dog with him. Jake reached him a lot sooner than I did and greeted him and got a couple of friendly ear scratches before I got there. After “Good Mornings” were exchanged, he said, “I lost my dog!”

He quickly went on to tell me that Lily had disappeared a week ago while they were walking the trail. Lily is fifteen years old, just over 20 pounds, a Golden/mix, and her eyesight isn’t what it used to be. Dave’s voice was right on the edge of cracking as he was telling me how they were walking the trail and suddenly she was nowhere to be seen, how he had walked and looked, and called, how he had been out every day since looking everywhere he could think to look, how he had left his shirt on a rock near some junipers in case she came by that way, how he had made picture posters and put them up at the trailhead, and along the highway, and how she had been his buddy for fifteen years. And twice he said, “I have another dog.”

I lost my dog Bear a long time ago and I know what it feels like to lose a dog! It was in 1990 when we were getting ready to leave Jamaica to move back to the US to explore moving to London to start a Bible Training Centre like the one we had developed in Jamaica. Bear the Dog came to us as a small puppy when we still lived in Linstead at Bread of Life Ministries and he grew to become a companion and protector while we lived there and then when we moved into Kingston, he took full responsibility for protecting our home and ourselves. Bear was a good dog! (I have some “Bear Stories” and could possibly be persuaded to write a post sometime about Bear the Dog).

One of the most emotional challenges as we prepared to leave Jamaica was rehoming seven-year-old Bear, but we had that pretty much worked out and Bear would go to live up above Kingston on Coopers Hill with our good friend Neville Wright and his wife Hyacinth and son John. The Wrights had lived in our home a couple of times to be closer to medical care and once had stayed in our home while we were away in the US for a few weeks. So Bear would be fine. But about a week before we left, perhaps the packing, the giving away of our furniture and appliances and “stuff”, had brought realization to Bear what was happening, and he simply disappeared one night. In the morning when we got up, he just wasn’t there! Our final days in Kingston, we frantically searched for him along with all the last-minute challenges of getting ready to leave Jamaica after seven years. We flew out to Atlanta on schedule, got busy with finding a place to live in transition, ministry travel in the US and to the UK, and lots of other planning and preparation for our move to England.

Then a few weeks later we made a trip to Kingston to finish up business and details for the Bible Training Centre there. We stayed in a guest house near Half-Way Tree, borrowed back our car from the friend we had given it to, and were busy with meetings and ministry and errands. Then one night late we were driving up Half-Way Tree Road to our lodgings and saw a dog that looked just like Bear trotting across the road some distance ahead. Our hearts leaped, we stopped the car and called and whistled for him. No response. It wasn’t Bear! We never learned what happened to him. I get teary just writing this and it’s been thirty-five years!

Ever since yesterday I’ve been thinking about meeting Dave on the trail and that he said, “She’s been my buddy for fifteen years!” and twice he said, “I’ve got another dog.” When your dog is lost it doesn’t matter how many dogs you’ve got (that you love as much as the lost dog), what matters is that you love the dog that’s lost! Dave is out there on the trails and driving the back roads and posting signs with a picture of Lily. Dave’s like the shepherd in the Jesus story who leaves the ninety-nine sheep and goes out in the wilderness looking for the one that’s lost. Except the shepherd Jesus told about found his lost sheep and we don’t know if Dave is going to find Lily. I never found Bear.

Before yesterday I didn’t know Lily existed. Since yesterday I’ve been praying for Lily and for Dave. I called him and told him my wife and I are praying he’ll find Lily and that I’ll check with him to see what happens.

There’s lots of dogs. And there’s lots of dogs that get lost. And there’s lots of lost dogs that I’ll never know about. But Lily is important to me now and I’m praying for her to find her way home. Do you know why Lily is important to me? Because Dave loves her. Dave’s love makes Lily precious and worth the effort Dave is making to find her. Love makes people precious too!

Thanks for reading my story. As always, I’d love to hear from you. You can reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, you can comment below.

Grace to you today, Jim Stephens