I had a somewhat traumatic experience this weekend in Flagstaff.  It was the boys weekend so Monty, the family male dog, and I took off for a little retreat of playing golf, fixing holes in the siding of our cottage that the woodpecker pecked, painting the front porch, and planting bulbs in our flower garden for next spring.  Needless to say Monty didn’t do any of those things, but just befriended me as I sweat.

In the process of painting the deck, a very interesting encounter took place.  I have to digress just a minute.  When we are up in Flagstaff and are sitting on our front porch glide love seat, Monty feels that he needs to protect his territory and chooses to bark at every dog that goes by, every person that goes by, and runs out to greet them with his tail wagging.  Most are very cordial to him and bend down to pet him.  As you can see in the picture, he wouldn’t hurt a fly–literally.

Well this particular morning we were both outside in the front and he was by my side as I was painting.  As was his usual custom, he began to bark at what seemed like a small dog going down the street  in front of our house.  I didn’t have my contacts on so I looked and saw a small dog without a master.  He ran out to the street and I got up to find that it wasn’t a dog but a baby javelina and his mother.  The baby stopped up the street with Monty’s bark, but the mother came after Monty with her teeth chomping ready to take a bite out of Monty.  At that instant, I ran down the driveway waving my hands in the air and yelling at the top of my lungs.  Monty stayed put and I chased the mother and baby javelina into the woods.  The mother’s teeth came within  6 inches of Monty before I stepped in to rescue Monty.  The mother was protecting her baby and I was protecting my baby.

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Needless to say Monty was traumatized the rest of the day and didn’t let me out of his sight.  He was right under my feet the rest of the day and never went to the street again.  It reminds me sometimes of myself.  There are times in my life that I see a problem and make a choice to fix the problem on my own.  Sometimes I am able to take care of whatever is happening, but there are times when I take on something that is too big for me to handle and get frozen by the enormity of the task.  I need in those situations to depend upon my Father in heaven to come to my rescue.

But I would go a step farther in saying that God wants us to come to Him for everything in life.  He wants us to be totally dependent upon seeking His face for the little problems of life as well as the big problems.  King David was confident in his abilities and skills as a fighter, but when he sought the Lord for direction and protection for his life, he had the greatest victories.  It was only when he rested upon himself to find answers to his problems that things went South.

On this journey when you come upon javelinas in your life, the Father above is closer than you think to be your protector and solver of the aggressive javelinas.  Enjoy the journey.