Are we out of the woods yet?

Remy got lost in the woods last week. I have run with this dog for two years over hill and dale and while he loves to bolt into the forest he always comes back. ALWAYS. Every time he reappears somewhere on the trail ahead of me – tongue lolling, head cocked, one paw lifted for his next dash.

This day I planned a new route that was point to point. There’s a 60+ mile horse trail that loops around the Blue Ridge Parkway. My goal is to run the whole thing, but broken into manageable chunks. This was going to be a 14 mile stretch beginning in a town north of us, and running south to the trails by my house. About half of it was going to be “new territory” to us. But it really doesn’t matter, I’ve taken him to mountains several hours away to run and he always stays close enough to come back at a whistle.

Not this day. I really blame the geography more than him. This trail started in a gap between two fingers that came off the main ridge of the mountain we were going to ascend. As such there were steep hills on both sides of the trail. We made it 1/2 mile up the trail and he took off after a squirrel. I kept running another 1/4 mile before realizing I couldn’t hear him anymore. I stopped and waited for five minutes. I started whistling. I couldn’t see or hear him anywhere. I walked slowly forward, I walked backward. What was I going to do? The hill was steep, he had probably crossed over that ridge and dropped into the valley on the other side, none of my noises or whistles were going to carry over. I was in the National Forest for crying out loud, this was thousands of acres of woods in a town I didn’t know a single person. My mind immediately went worst case scenario, he’d been stolen! He’d fallen and was unconscious! He was finding houses and looking for a new home! Another ten minutes passed and I couldn’t decide what my best strategy was, if I went up the ridge to yell down the other side there was a good chance I’d get lost myself. And if I strayed too far off the path and he managed to smell his way back, he might not realize I went up and he might start running towards home. I had a real Homeward Bound situation on my hands.

I was pushing twenty to thirty minutes of pacing, yelling and fretting at this point before I decided my best option was to go back to the trail head, call hubs and start going door to door of any houses nearby. I took off at a mad sprint sending up arrow prayers – you know the ones, “oh God please. Let me find him. This is terrible. Please help.” I kept thinking how great it would be if I had a drone and could look down from the sky to see his yellow vest and floofy white tail. If only I knew someone up there with a bird’s eye view….. I stopped running, held my hands up and said, “God. You are bigger than these woods. You are bigger than this sky. You see Remy right now wherever he is on this mountain. Please keep him safe and show me how to get to him.”

I took off running again and not even twenty seconds later Remy came ripping around the bend ahead and leaped straight onto me. I could tell he had been just as stressed as me based on the way he kept Tigger pouncing. My guess is he did drop down into that other valley, realized he was way off track, and made his way back to the trailhead. I’d like to think he picked up our scent and was heading down the trail but I’m not sure he’s that good of a sniffer.

It was a cool moment to see how God cares about us in the big and the small. I know there are lots of really big prayer requests that don’t always get the answers we want in the timing we want. Comparing my lost dog to some of those situations is not what I’m trying to do. But I try to make a point of seeing God show up even in the little things and telling my kids about it.

When I got home and told the kids their eyes were big with worry. It prompted some good conversation though, as my oldest complained how plenty of her prayers “never get answered.”

I would argue that God answers all our prayers, it’s just not always a “yes” or a “right now.” Instant gratification doesn’t always teach us that much, often it’s the prayer journey where we learn the most.

Coincidentally while I was writing this post a friend sent me the following text from Tara Leigh Cobble’s Bible in a Year plan.

“God speaks to Abraham in specific yet vague ways like ‘one of the mountains of which I shall tell you,’ and ‘the land that I will show you.’ Many of us want God to tell us the whole plan so we can do it, but the point is not just doing what God wants, but doing it with God. We’re on a journey with God as He leads us step-by-step. It’s way more beautiful to enjoy the intimacy that comes in the constant interaction.”¹

I’m grateful this prayer was a “right now” and only added an extra mile or so onto my journey. Remy kept really close for the rest of the run but I know it won’t be long until he’s tearing up the ridges again.

Guess who is now the proud owner of a doggy air tag? That guy. Allegedly these things only work around cell phones with bluetooth but I’ve done one test run and was able to have an idea of his general direction so I’ll take it!