Men with biscuits

Since my driving license expired a few months ago - I have been walking a lot more.

The morning walk to my office is just 10 minutes and gives me a view of the Yeoor hills of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

I also get to do a lot of people-watching.

Almost every day I see at least one man surrounded by dogs.

Not his own dogs. Not his neighbours' dogs. No, a motley crew of local street dogs.

And why are they clustered around him?

Because of what he has in his hands. Big packets of glucose biscuits.

When he rips open the packets, out tumble the biscuits onto the road. And are wolfed up by the happy pie dogs.

One of these men is a frail stubbled white-haired man. He walks slowly with this biscuit packets in hand. I have seen him also sharing some of the biscuits with kids from a local shanty.

The other two men that I see most frequently are tough safari-suited men. They have hard faces and large corpulent bodies. The biscuits fall and the dogs eat and they walk away.

What goes on in these men's minds? Are they feeding the dogs out of some kind of guilt? Do they like the company of mute friends? Are they letting an inner child be fed as well as their canine companions?

What indeed goes on in the mind of anyone who "does a good deed"? Scripture tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things. So much of our supposed 'goodness' is an itch to be thanked and appreciated by others, isn't it?

Well, yes. But.

At the core of goodness is Godness. It can't be otherwise. Though our motives may be mixed and mashed. Though our thoughts may be inward and confused. That which is good - even on a backdrop of mundane grimness is ultimately a gift from God.

I wish my dog feeding friends would do other things as well. I may wonder whether their biscuits are contributing to the howls of stray dogs at night - and the regular dog bites that kids get from the mongrels that roam our city streets - but I cannot begrudge them a small sliver of goodness in their morning acts.

My understanding is that it stems from their heavenly Father - who they may or may not know. Would that they would know Him more - especially through the life and personal reality of my Lord Jesus Christ.