Living Expectantly

Living Expectantly
Ron Bartanen, via Arthur church of Christ, Arthur, IL
Bulletin Digest
(Edited)

​   Have you ever heard the tale of old Shep? Near where our daughter and family live in Montana, overlooking the Missouri River and the Great Northern Railroad, is a monument erected to pay tribute to old Shep, a collie dog that had belonged to an old shepherd.

​   Have you ever heard the tale of old Shep? Near where our daughter and family live in Montana, overlooking the Missouri River and the Great Northern Railroad, is a monument erected to pay tribute to old Shep, a collie dog that had belonged to an old shepherd.
   Wherever the man went, Shep was always at his side. Then in 1936 Shep’s master died. Shep accompanied him a final time when men took his body to the train station from whence it would be shipped back East for burial. Shep tried to board the train with his master but was put off.
   As the train pulled from the station, Shep followed as far as he could. Losing sight of the train, he returned to the station where he dug a spot under the depot, from which he would keep vigil for the return of his master. Through six cold, snowy Montana winters and five springs he would expectantly greet the arrival of each train, looking for his master’s return. In January, 1942, a train struck the old dog, killing him. Railroaders who had befriended and fed the dog buried him on a bluff, and the monument was erected in his memory.
   Are we, as Christians, as faithful as was old Shep as we look for the return of our Master? Unlike Shep, our Master will return. When God’s table of time is completed, “He that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Hebrews 10:37). Though years pass, we are “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 3:13).  The question is: ARE YOU READY?
 

The Dog That Attended Faithfully
by:
Gary L. Hutchens

   Let me tell you another faithful dog story.  This dog faithfully attended the worship of the church every single Sunday.  Well, he was not actually in the worship service itself.  His owners, a somewhat elderly farm couple, faithfully worshipped with the Richmond church of Christ in Richmond, TN every Sunday morning.  Richmond was a tiny community, no longer really a town, way out in the country in north central Tennessee.
   The couple lived even farther out in the country, a considerable distance from the little community.  They would get in their pickup truck every Sunday morning and drive through the countryside to the small church building in Richmond.
   As they stepped out into the parking lot after worship service, their dog would be faithfully waiting for them.  They had not brought him with them when they left home to worship with the church, but he always knew where they would be every Sunday morning, and he would be there waiting for them.  They, and he, attended faithfully.  I know, because I preached for that congregation during my last year in college.
   We can only speculate as to how he knew what day of the week it was and where they would be.  He knew his masters, and somehow he keyed in on their behavior each Sunday morning.  That elderly couple, and their dog, set a great example for everybody around them to see and learn from.
   Here’s the question of application: Where would people instinctively look for You each Sunday morning?
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