Being woke by a ringing phone before the actual alarm goes off in a police family isn’t abnormal, but it still startles you. To a parent of adult children living out on their own, when that phone rings your mind quickly lands on them. The other morning it was our daughter, and her Daddy answered the phone. As I heard him softly ask “is he dead?” I knew we were in trouble. I quickly got up and started to dress, flustered and not fully awake I dropped something into the open commode, and got angry. We left for our daughter’s house and my anger kept stirring, until I started praying. Just a couple days before our daughter and granddaughter had bought a little puppy at a pet store. I was not in favor of this purchase at this time, due to a lot of sensible reasons, and my daughter agreed they were sensible but knew she was in love. In my thinking, this pup was being brought into their home at the wrong time. My daughter has tried several times to raise a pup, and now she is a single parent working two jobs and her plate is full and pets take a lot of work especially at the beginning. While I applied all the logic to this situation, she applied all the heart. A day after the purchase a vet visit was required, the pup hadn’t eaten anything. She was told she had a very sick little pup with a parasite on her hands, and his outcome was iffy.
We arrived quickly hoping to remove the little fella before our four year old granddaughter got out of bed, but she met us at the door carrying the pup swaddled in one of her receiving blankets. My heart went numb, and my eyes became blurry, but as we entered we found that he hadn’t passed away but was close. Our daughter sped off to the vet and we were on duty possibly doing damage control. Barely surviving the day, the vet is kept the little guy overnight hooked up to an IV and today my daughter will need to make a very hard decision.
As we talked last night about the pup spending the night at the vet and all the attention he would need hourly once he got home, I became discouraged for them all. I could see and hear the discouragement in my daughter. It was getting late and everyone needed to be up today, but she lingered a little longer and I heard her say that she and her daughter were lonely now that they aren’t living with us. I then realized my heart had been missing, and my brain working overtime. They just wanted to snuggle with their little fella.
After they left, I was reminded of the puppy love story I had heard from another police wife recently, and how she had saved and nursed some pups back to life. She happily shared that story and a picture of one of those little survivors all happy and snug in their bed.
Life is full of rough moments, tough decisions, and situations that make no sense. In general life can sometimes “bite”. When we are experiencing life, we can snuggle up with God. He brings true healing, peace and comfort for our wounds, and wisdom and courage when we have to make hard decisions. Our story with him is a beautiful love story.
Join me today as we treat other’s life situations with love and kindness being sensitive to their needs.
Father, we need you in all area’s of our lives, fill our lonely places, we just want to snuggle up with you, as you carry us through. Give us the desire to be there for other’s and to share Jesus with them. Thank you Lord, for all of those in the world who love, care for and adopt pets, treating them like family. In Jesus name Amen.