Pepper doesn’t particularly like our vet. He is in a strange place where there are lots of animal smells. The vet draws blood - or rather has tried to draw blood. The vet gives Pepper shots. Two years ago, it was a major battle to accomplish what we needed to. So two weeks ago, when I took Ebony in, the vet gave me a sedative in a syringe to shoot into the back of Pepper’s mouth before I took him in today. You can imagine how much fun that was! I managed to accomplish it, and we were amazed at his resulting sluggishness. The sedative took the edge off Pepper’s high spirits, enough that our vet could give him both vaccines (distemper and rabies). There was no way Pepper was going to allow him to draw blood to do the heartworm test!
My normally high-spirited dog is very subdued this afternoon. He is not only sleepy, he also had no interest in food or in going on a walk with Ron. He doesn’t feel very well. He crept over to me earlier and just leaned up against me after pushing his face into my leg. Poor little doggie. I just wonder what’s going through his mind. The day started out really well with a walk, but it went downhill from there: sedative shot into his mouth, a trip to the vet, two shots that HURT, and now a tummy ache. Yep, it’s been a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day.
Sometimes it’s like that for us, as Christians, too. We’re blithely going about our business, it looks like it’s going to be a very good day, and suddenly some terrible, horrible, no good, very bad stuff happens. We don’t like what has happened, and we’d very much like to hit erase.
The only thing is: we were bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:20); we now belong to God (1 John 4:6). Futhermore, God is sovereign. There is nothing that happens that He doesn’t allow. Even Nebuchadnezzar had to learn this lesson (Daniel 5:21)! Add to this the fact that God loves us so much (John 17:23) that He gave His only begotten Son that we might be saved and adopted into the very family of God (John 3:16, Romans 8:23).
In the end, if you have a relationship with the Sovereign God of the universe, if He is your God and you are His, then there is nothing that happens to you that He does not control (Romans 8:28, Genesis 50:20).
I love Pepper. I want the best for him. And today, the best meant giving him a sedative, taking him to the vet, and having him stuck with a needle twice - because I want him to be healthy.
God loves each of us so much more than I love this dog. So the next time you’re having a rough day, stop and consider if maybe, just maybe, it was for your good. Maybe you needed it so you’d be a healthy Christian.
My normally high-spirited dog is very subdued this afternoon. He is not only sleepy, he also had no interest in food or in going on a walk with Ron. He doesn’t feel very well. He crept over to me earlier and just leaned up against me after pushing his face into my leg. Poor little doggie. I just wonder what’s going through his mind. The day started out really well with a walk, but it went downhill from there: sedative shot into his mouth, a trip to the vet, two shots that HURT, and now a tummy ache. Yep, it’s been a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day.
Sometimes it’s like that for us, as Christians, too. We’re blithely going about our business, it looks like it’s going to be a very good day, and suddenly some terrible, horrible, no good, very bad stuff happens. We don’t like what has happened, and we’d very much like to hit erase.
The only thing is: we were bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:20); we now belong to God (1 John 4:6). Futhermore, God is sovereign. There is nothing that happens that He doesn’t allow. Even Nebuchadnezzar had to learn this lesson (Daniel 5:21)! Add to this the fact that God loves us so much (John 17:23) that He gave His only begotten Son that we might be saved and adopted into the very family of God (John 3:16, Romans 8:23).
In the end, if you have a relationship with the Sovereign God of the universe, if He is your God and you are His, then there is nothing that happens to you that He does not control (Romans 8:28, Genesis 50:20).
I love Pepper. I want the best for him. And today, the best meant giving him a sedative, taking him to the vet, and having him stuck with a needle twice - because I want him to be healthy.
God loves each of us so much more than I love this dog. So the next time you’re having a rough day, stop and consider if maybe, just maybe, it was for your good. Maybe you needed it so you’d be a healthy Christian.
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