My family and I were invited to a Memorial Day cookout yesterday at a friend’s house. In camping chairs and patio furniture, we sat around shooting the breeze, laughing, and generally enjoying the day. In the center of the circle was their dog, Noah. As I enjoyed listening to people laughing and sharing, I watched Noah move from inside the circle to outside, where he was a little less the center of attention.

Through the legs of a camping chair across from me I could still see Noah and what he was doing. I thought he was yawning until — oh yeah — up and out came whatever it was he had eaten most recently. Whatever it was, there was a lot of it. I shuddered inside at what I had just witnessed. Everyone else seemed to be oblivious to it.

And then I watched Scripture come to life. Look up Proverbs 26:11 and you’ll read…
“As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.”

As if Noah had instantly forgotten (or most likely didn’t care) where that mound of warm yuck had just come from, he began sniffing the pile and then — oh yeah — licking, lapping, and chomping it up for round two. I shuddered inside again at what I was now witnessing.

And my level of disgust brought to mind the ugliness of my sin. As I watched that dog do what dogs sometimes do, it occured to me that when it comes to the sins I repeat, God looks at me in just the same way. Loving me (as undoubtedly my friends adore their dog), but simultaneously sickened by the sins I choose to commit, no matter what they are.

I’m not sure I’ll look at repetitive sins the same way again.