The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time.
CARL F.H. HENRY
I love the classic Disney movie One Hundred and One Dalmatians. One of my favorite parts is the twilight bark. When the Dalmatian puppies go missing, their frantic doggie parents use a barking relay to search for them. News of their disappearance is woofed from one dog to another until finally, the puppies are found and eventually rescued from the villains who stole them.
Well, that particular brand of social networking was a figment of storytelling imagination. So when my dear friend Charlotte’s toy Sheltie, Tess, went missing recently, she tried a Facebook bark instead.
Charlotte lives on a farm in South Carolina. She teaches horseback riding and raises toy Shelties. She adores every puppy born in her home and has a standing policy that any dog can be returned at any time for any reason if its family can no longer keep it.
Beautiful Tess was a dog that came back. Her family adored her, but factors came into play that made them conclude, after much agonizing, that it might be best to give her up. Charlotte was not only delighted to take her back, but decided to keep her permanently.
Charlotte welcomed Tess back on a Thursday. Two days later, she had a little horse show at her farm. Tess and the other dogs were let out to play in a fully fenced yard. At some point, Charlotte discovered to her horror that Tess was gone. A telltale hole suggested she’d dug her way under the fence and taken off.
No one knows for certain why Tess escaped. A likely guess is that she still wasn’t quite sure where home was. It was a terrible time to be loose. A storm hit. Snow fell. It was freezing cold. To make matters worse, Tess had no collar or tags. Her return had been so recent that this little matter hadn’t been attended to yet.
Charlotte networks on Facebook constantly and has hundreds of friends. Many live right in her area. Charlotte posted a plea for help. She got it! Tess’s former family put up current photos of the dog. People cross-posted Tess’s plight to spread the word. Countless Facebook pages trumpeted the missing dog alert. Posts also triggered massive prayers for Tess to be safe from the storm and be found. Charlotte and friends who lived nearby put up posters and launched a physical search—but the Facebook relay got the news out much more widely.
Across the country in California, I prayed too. Monday morning came. Still no Tess. Charlotte was hoping and praying she was somewhere safe and warm with humans who had taken her in with no way to know where she belonged. I prayed again and begged God she’d be located.
Then, I saw the post that made my day—someone thought they had her!
It was true! She’d been found and spent the weekend with a local family. They’d had no idea who her owners were. Monday they’d seen a Facebook alert about Tess and realized this was probably the dog they’d been falling in love with. A grateful Charlotte profusely thanked her new human friends and welcomed the little truant back into her embrace, praising God for answered prayer.
So, what’s the moral of this story? Keep tags on your dog at all times? It’s great to have friends? Prayer makes a difference? Those are valid lessons, yes. But this tale has deeper significance for me. It makes me think of my loving Lord who weeps over those who are spiritually lost. And it makes me realize the crucial importance of spreading the gospel’s good news so they might hear and come home to Him.
In what’s famously referred to as the Great Commission, Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-20).
Long before Facebook and animated movies, Jesus was urging a communications relay to get out the word about Him. In the absence of modern media, God spread the gospel by spreading people. The early church in Jerusalem was scattered because of persecution, and the good news scattered right along with it. But each generation must get out the word anew.
Tess is home because people cared enough to spread the word about her plight. Are there people in your life who might come home to God if you helped to show them the way?
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ (Romans 10:17).
Who in your life might need to find their way home to God? How might you relay the gospel to them? How could you participate in posting it more widely to other areas of the world?