My Dog Just Dies For Chocolate

Two weeks ago I decided to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Accidentally, one partial cookie dough ball fell on the floor. Tragically, our dog (65 pound pit bull/lab) ate said cookie dough ball. I knew this was a very bad thing because growing up I had a French Toy Poodle who helped himself to a bag-full of chocolate chips that had fallen in our pantry. And that poor thing threw up all over the living room and dining room for hours. Why hours? Why all over the two rooms you ask? Because my sister and I (home by ourselves)were absorbed in a Corey Haim movie and couldn't get our eyes unglued from the TV long enough to clean the mess up or sequester the dog in the kitchen. For heaven's sake, it was Corey Haim! (For some of you that may have little to no significance, but let me just assure you, he was BIG STUFF for us growing up in the '80's. H-O-T HOT. ) I digress... Anyway, back to the current situation.


For two days we thought our dog was going to die. Lethargic, swollen throat, dry nose (isn't that bad for a dog?), wouldn't eat, wouldn't move, wouldn't go potty. And then on day three - praise the Lord! -he got up, ate something, threw up, and was his normal self.


But then a weird thing happened, every time I baked some of the cookies (I freeze the dough balls and only bake 8-10 at a time so they don't go to waste), he would come running, saliva all over the place, just waiting for a possible crumb of chocolate. Turns out, after dogs get a taste of chocolate, they crave it. Even though its deadly for them to ingest.


And friends, isn't that EXACTLY how we are with sin? We get a taste of it, maybe even accidentally, and it wields its evil in our spiritual lives. We are sick at heart, fear there is no hope for us...and then, miraculously, some of us recover. We repent and move forward. But that sin, so sneaky and deadly, becomes what we crave. We might not realize it, but we're aware of its scent, its oh-so-delicious scent and we want it. Knowing full well what will happen, we stalk the "kitchen" waiting for an opportunity to get another taste. And if we keep getting a taste, and another taste, and another, it will eventually kill us. How blessed are we to have a watchful "Chef" (work with me on this analogy) making sure not even a drop of a sin falls within our grasp! Let's be sure to not complicate His efforts by reaching for what is sure to harm us. No matter how much we think we want it.