Thursday, June 28, 2007

Dogs, treats, and the grace of God...

As I type this, I am sitting in an oversized chair with two dogs curled up on the top of the chair. It is like having a giant, fury headrest. I mention this because I am going to talk about my dogs…again.

We went out for a walk this morning: Ariel, Pepper, and I. Our usual routine is to go for a walk, come back in and take off the leashes, and then get a “treat”. The dogs usually stalk me until they get their treat. They act as if they’ve been stranded on a desert island without any food for days. This morning, as I went into the kitchen to get the treats, only Pepper followed me. I called to Ariel and she didn’t come, which was odd, especially since food was involved. I walked into the living room and found her sitting on the couch (the WHITE couch, mind you), looking as cute as ever. I threw the treat toward her and it landed on the floor, a couple feet in front of the couch. Ariel just sat on the couch, looking at the treat. I thought it was odd, but figured that she was just being independent. So, I ran upstairs to collect laundry and once I finished with that, Ariel was still on the couch. I realized something must be wrong, because normally she and Pepper both follow me around like I am a world-famous movie star and they are the paparazzi (it makes me think I am way more important than I actually am!).

I went over to Ariel on the couch and started touching her to see if she had any sore spots. I lifted her little bottom up from her sitting position and realized the problem. DISCLAIMER: something disgusting is about to be said!!! Turns out, it was a poop issue…a little stuck and dangling (did I mention that I have a white couch?!). So, being a good dog-mom, I went to get some toilet paper and we did a little “procedure” to free Ariel from her discomfort. She instantly ran to get her treat and commenced with stalking me all over the house.

I felt pretty bad that I made her sit there for about ten minutes before even checking to see if she was ok. She did a number of strange things, all of which should have alerted me that something wasn’t right. It made me think about God and how He takes care of us in a very different way than we take care of things. He knows instantly what the problem is; He knows even before we do. He doesn’t leave us to sit in our own poop, proverbially speaking. God rushes to our aid, to do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves. That means a lot to me and is a great reassurance, especially during the poopy seasons of life.

It also makes me think of a song, of which I only know a few lines (and am not even sure who wrote it). But I offer it to you today as a message of comfort and hope:

He didn't bring us this far just to leave us.
He didn't teach us to swim to let us drown.
He didn't build His home in us just to move away.
He didn't pick us up to let us down.

No comments: