Wired to Protect

I have blogged in the past how our dog Max loves to go out with us to get the mail, paper, or take out the garbage.  See this blog post.  For a long time, I could not figure out why Max got so excited about going out to the paper, mail, etc.  After all, he could not go down with me to the mailbox because of his electric fence.  It made no sense – not that I spend my life analyzing a dog’s behavior.  But most dogs are driven by something – they are not complex beings.  Food, play, sleep, pee, poop, attack, defend, etc. 

But I observed Max’s behavior when we went out.  First thing he does is look left to see if there is anything in the woods to the left of our house.  If there is, he would run frantically and bark at whatever he perceived it to be.  Then he would look right.  Then he would really go nuts if there was a car going by our our neighbor was in his yard.  He also would constantly look back and forth even when I was making eye contact with him coming back up the driveway.  So it finally dawned on me – Max thinks he is protecting me and he is wired to protect.  Protection of us is in his DNA.  It all now made perfect sense. 

What a picture of our heavenly Father who seeks to nurture and protect those that are His.  Except the battlefield we are talking about are spiritual and the forces of darkness are far more threatening.  But as I look at Max, I am reminded that we have a Father who constantly watches over us now and forevermore.  He has our back!