This blog post was written by my wife Leslie.
I really love to read. I enjoy exploring places with my mind that I may never see with my eyes. I find myself re-reading my favorite stories more often than trying to find new ones. With each revisit a new layer of the book opens itself to me or an old layer acquires a fresh relevancy in my life. One of my favorite books to re-examine is White Fang by Jack London. The narrator and main character is a wolf-dog hybrid that is captured from the wild by a Native American. His life is marked by the cruelty and harshness shown him. His character becomes irreversibly set; he is an outsider, hated and revered by his own kind and humankind. He is loyal to his master, however, and fiercely defends all that his master owns. He tries to leave his master several times and never fully succeeds. Though White Fang’s life in the wild before he was captured beckons to him, his nature is now formed to be the servant of one master.
His next master is much worse than the first: a hideous madman who pits him against other dogs in a cage to win money. These fights are to the death and White Fang must kill or be killed. He never loses a fight until he is put in the cage with a bulldog whose fighting style is to grip onto the neck of his opponent, lock his jaws, and slowly work into a tighter grip until his victim is throttled. White Fang has no counterattack for this style and starts to lose consciousness.
Suddenly, a passing man sees the fighting dogs and the rowdy men who have bet on them. Calling them cowards, he works to unlock the jaw of the bulldog and save White Fang. For the first time in his life, White Fang is shown mercy. The next chapter in the book is called The Love Master. This is the part of the book that is more poignant to me every time I read it. His new master transforms him from the wild snarling outsider into an excellent sled dog and companion. Never shown love in his life, White Fang is bonded inextricably to this man by the mercy and love shown him.
Have you ever felt like life has gotten you by the throat, and you have no way out? Jesus was sent to “proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed…” (Luke 4:18) and He is the only one whose mercy can save and transform you. I relate so much to White Fang in this story, I have served a master that never gave me mercy and discarded me as soon as it had no more use for me. I have felt the pressures of the world throttling the life out of me. Though I was blind to it, God saw the pitiful state I was in and saved me. I was what Revelation 3:15-18 was written about. I was badly in need of rescue and God could see it much more clearly than me. He showed me love when I had none to give in return. I have read and re-read this story and it never becomes stale to me; Jesus loved me and saved me from certain death and became the only Master worthy of my undying adoration. I am his bondservant and the bond between us is love.
Troy Black
Author & Speaker