lost dogs

I got out of my morning class early today, so I decided to go back to my house between classes.  On my way back I sorta jogged to cross the street to beat the traffic light.  As I crossed I noticed two golden retrievers on the opposite street from me, they clearly had tags and seemed to be lost.  Quickly my heart dropped...it's a cloudy day with misty rain...traffic's bad and there's a chance they could get hit!  As I was preparing to dart back across the street to try and get them a few people near them also saw they're need and tried to corral them out of the road, pretty soon a lot more students joined in the effort.  So I smiled and continued on to my house happy that others had compassion on these helpless dogs.

Then, it hit me.  I was willing to stop my day, my schedule, my plans, possibly dart back across the road; all to make sure these dogs were safe and their owners found.  I had compassion on them, because they were helpless...This is what Jesus did when he looked at crowds of people "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."-Matthew 9:36

But what hit me was I would drop everything I was doing for a couple of dogs(albeit adorable) but when I see a crowd of people I often have very little compassion and typically am annoyed if they in any way inconvenience me or my time.  The thoughts that came to my mind were "What if they were mine? What would I want someone to do?"  So then those thought filtered out as, "God created all people uniquely in His image, so they are His, God loves all people, what would He want done with them?"  Clearly He has said in Matthew 9:37 "Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest field." So Prayer is one response, another is to be a messenger of the story of reconciliation, that is, that God is calling the world to Himself through Christ, by not counting men's sins against them, but rather against Christ-2nd Corinthians  5:18-21

So I was convicted today by two dogs...and I hope that I would look on people with compassion like I looked on those dogs...but more so like God looked on me!