Great Dog Stories (29 page)

Becca needed physical medicine. I needed my writing skills to be doctored. We all need spiritual dosing from our Great Physician on a daily basis. Though Jesus paid for our sins on the cross and we are forgiven through faith in Him, life on earth is an ongoing process of having our spiritual warts removed by a loving and caring God. At times, that process can be much more bitter and painful than we’d like. But in His marvelous grace, God has given us plum jam to help us through. He has given us His Word and His Spirit, not only to guide and refine us, but to comfort us. But that’s not all! Check out the plum jam in Hebrews 4:14-16: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Becca didn’t get any less medicine because it was mixed with plum jam. If anything she got more—because she didn’t fight it. For her, this made the dosage easier to swallow. It was easier for me to swallow tough critique when it was sweetened by the plum jam of heartfelt encouragement. We all need the plum jam of God’s grace and mercy when we hit a spiritual wall, and in Jesus we have a High Priest who can give each of us just the individual touch we need to keep walking with Him.

God wants us to be His instruments to soothe and encourage others too. He wants us to be spreaders of His plum jam. Is there someone you can encourage and uplift today?

Your sorrow itself shall be turned into joy. Not
the sorrow to be taken away, and joy to be put in
its place, but the very sorrow which now grieves
you shall be turned into joy. God not only takes
away the bitterness and gives sweetness in its place,
but turns the bitterness into sweetness itself.

C
HARLES
H
ADDON
S
PURGEON

N
adja and her younger brother and sister were adopted from Russia when she was five years old. Her adoptive parents brought them from a sad, lonely existence to a warm, loving, Christ-centered home. Adopting all three of them allowed the children to comfort each other as they learned the ways of this new world. And their new parents gave them unconditional love.

But about one year after they were adopted, they had to deal with a new loss. Their adoptive daddy died of cancer. Everyone was stricken with grief.

One day Nadja’s mom and uncle took the kids to see some golden retriever puppies. They ran all over the yard playing with their new four-footed friends, everyone smiling once again. They were told this was just a visit, but they could come back someday soon. Then they went back to their uncle’s home for dinner.

Nadja’s mom and uncle said they had to go to the store for something and would be right back. They left the children with other family members. When they returned, something was wriggling under Uncle’s shirt. Out came a happy, squirming golden retriever puppy—just for them. Now it was their turn to adopt. Rosie became a beloved member of the family.

Their new dog proved a great addition. They were joyful once more as they played with Rosie, hugged her, and cuddled with her while they read or watched TV. Rosie was a great comfort to Nadja. When sadness or loneliness swept her soul, she invited Rosie up on her lap. They would sit together as Nadja held her close. Rosie’s canine love was not a replacement for Nadja’s father, but it helped tremendously to fill the huge hole that had been left first by the loss of her birth parents, and then by the death of her American dad who loved her so very much.

Nadja had some tough times growing up. But her American mom was there for her and her brother and sister. Mom loved them dearly and also taught them about Jesus’s love, which is infinitely greater even than her own.

Part of that love involved discipline. Nadja learned about obedience from both her mom and her dog. Rosie wasn’t too good at minding the children, but when Mom came into the room Rosie ran to her, sat down, and waited for instruction. She knew Mom was boss. She also learned that if she was obedient, doggie biscuits were in her near future.

Nadja’s mom enrolled the children in a private Christian school where I was teaching at the time. She hoped it would help them adjust to their new culture more easily and also learn more about the love of Jesus. I had Nadja in my class. At one of the chapel services, the school presented all three kids with an American flag that had been flown over the White House. Their mom was so pleased. She hugged us with tears in her eyes.

That was about twelve years ago. Lately I’ve been going to a special pool to swim for therapeutic exercise. The other day I was introduced to a new swim coach. She was tall, slender, and beautiful and her name was Nadja. I looked at her and had to ask, “Are you from Russia?” She said yes. Then I asked if she had gone to Heritage Christian School. She had. I told her I was Mrs. Fleishauer, her third grade teacher. She gasped, “Oh my gosh! Yes you are!”

You just don’t expect to see your third grade teacher in a swimsuit. We had switched roles. Now she was my instructor. It was obvious to me as we talked that Nadja had grown up not just physically, but spiritually as well. She shared with me that she had a personal relationship with the Lord and would soon be attending a Christian college.

I know Rosie was a great instrument of comfort for Nadja’s family. Nadja was really little then, but she remembers how much she loved Rosie and that Rosie loved her. She recalls how comforting it was to have Rosie close to her when she was frightened or lonely. But, like her birth parents and her American dad, Rosie wouldn’t be around to do that for her forever.

Jesus will! Nadja’s relationship with Rosie was like a prelude in a very small way to how she felt when she accepted Jesus as her personal Savior. She accepted God’s invitation to sit in His lap of comfort and strength, and she can go there always.

Many centuries ago, the apostle Paul also had some tough times. He suffered horrible persecution and severe physical hardships for his faith. But he also found great comfort in God’s lap. That’s why he could write, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

God invites all who will come to climb on His lap and receive His comfort and goodness. Paul and Nadja said yes. Have you?

God has not called us to see through each
other, but to see each other through.

A
NONYMOUS

M
unchie, my little papillon mix, is the stockiest dog I’ve ever had. He’s also the least athletic. In their prime, all the others could easily leap up onto my king-sized bed. They adored snuggling and cuddling there, and I adored their soft warmth and affection. When Munchie joined my four-footed family, his fondest wish was to enter into the lovefest. But he didn’t quite trust that his little legs could jump that high. And whether what he lacked was faith or spring, he usually couldn’t make it.

I didn’t want to overly baby the new dog in the pack. I felt that with encouragement, he could take this leap. Munchie loved food and I used treats to try to coax him to jump higher. He did manage to make it onto the bed now and then, but usually he came up short. Frantic to join us, he’d paw furiously at the bed’s edge while loudly proclaiming his doggie frustration and begging for help. At this juncture, I sometimes just gave in and lifted him up. But I wasn’t completely happy with this solution, and some furniture in my bedroom suggested another approach.

I have an easy chair in the room with a separate ottoman. I decided to scoot it next to the bed. With this assist and some coaxing from me, Munchie managed to get up on the bed on his own.

Okay, true confession time. I didn’t persist in my ottoman solution. It’s a bit heavy, and pushing it over grew tiresome. I got lazy, abandoned the practice, and went back to lifting Munchie onto my bed at night.

No matter. I think that ottoman exercise was more for me than my dog. God has shown me that at times, I expect too much of people. He has turned my experience with Munchie into a metaphor for that. On at least one occasion, He has literally whispered to my heart, “They can’t jump from the floor to the bed. They need an ottoman.” And I knew He wanted me to provide it.

I believe this metaphor has wider applications too. I’ve recently had the joy of becoming acquainted with a marvelous organization called Free Wheelchair Mission. They design simple, durable wheelchairs that cost roughly $50 to $60 each. Over the past ten years, they have given away half a million of these chairs to the poorest of the poor in countries all over the globe. These chairs have lifted crawlers off the ground, freed shut-ins to venture outside their homes, and in some cases made it possible for people to go to school or hold a job who couldn’t have otherwise.

In April of 2010, I was privileged to travel with this organization to Chile. Seven of us flew from the U.S. and teamed with their distribution partners in Chile, FEDES Foundation, to give out a number of wheelchairs personally to prescreened recipients. They all had touching stories, but one young man in particular grabbed my heart.

This young man, roughly 30 years old, could not speak—he could only make sounds. A childhood illness had left him unable to walk. He had had a very rough life. But despite it, he had an indomitable spirit. He was clearly beyond grateful for the wheelchair and embraced it, eagerly soaking up our team’s tips on how to drive it. We had the sense that he was eager for any small chance to be more independent…and would seize any opportunity he was offered. As we pulled away in our car, he was wheeling his brand new chair up the street.

One of the Americans could not get this fellow out of her mind. Could more be done for this young man? Through a series of events, and with help from the wonderfully caring Chilean distribution partners, a special school was found for this worthy fellow. It is especially for young adults with disabilities. With financial help from his American sponsor, this young man is now being helped there.

But that’s not the most amazing part of the story. His school evaluation revealed that this man’s physical condition was deteriorating. Without therapy, he would soon have been unable to sit in his new wheelchair. The interested American had no clue about this, but God knew! God knew this young man needed a second “ottoman.” Because a stranger answered the help wanted ad God placed on her heart, this fellow is now receiving much-needed therapy at the school, and both he and the “ottoman-giver” feel blessed.