Bella is a 10 month old Springer Spaniel. She is a very intent and I would say Happy dog. She likes to snuggle at the end of the day -- but before she crashes she always has her "eyes on the ball." From the first moment she wakes, she is purposefully going about her day.

Yesterday morning I looked out my back window. There I saw Bella in the yard, sniffling around. The sun was rising and the dew was thick and wet on the grass. It was picturesque.

What was interesting was that because of the dew I could see every step she has taken, every path she had gone down in her explorations. Intent as she was, her paths were not straight - from point A to point B - but instead zig zagged and curly, short and long. She had very "purposefully" wandered here and there - sometimes crossing previous paths, sometimes stopping short and beginning in another direction.

I smiled. How she has grown from a tiny pup I held in my two hands! How more confident and boldly she goes where she would not have gone before -- blazing travels in every direction. Searching, seeking, exploring, being; inconsciously reveling in being herself.

Despite her many paths she was safe in the world I had provide for her -- within our fenced in yard. And I knew at the end of her discoveries (perhaps clean, dirty, hungry or tired) she would come to the place meant for her - home.

And like Bella, sometimes when bad things happen to us or when our path in life is not clear we think our Master is distant and complacient.

This is not true.

God created us, has watched us grow, provides for us in our time of need when we think he has not. He marvels at our every move -- is intriqued at every place our free will takes us in our explorations in the world he has created for us. He sees every path-- a perspective we cannot comprehend-- all our curly q's and zig zags. At times he leads us but we stop short and aburptly go another direction. Every step meant to shape us, change us -- make us stronger -- make us closer to what he has intended. We are like steel being tempered in the fire.

Have Faith. He does.

He knows we'll reach our final destination; He knows we're coming home.