Lost and Found

I have "collected" quite a few animals in the past ten (10) years or so. Some of them we still have, and some have lived a full life span from beginning to end in our care.  My husband is in the Army and has had to be gone on occasion for long periods of time. It seems to be our habit to get a new animal every time my husband is gone for an extended period.  We didn't plan it or anything, it just seemed to happen. At one point I thought I might be able to print up "Petting Zoo" tickets and sell them to the neighborhood kids and let them walk through my home playing with all the animals. I thought it was a great fundraising idea! 

Let me try to list out the animals so you can get the gist of what I mean.  In the past ten years we have had: 6 dogs, 3 rabbits, 1 turtle, 1 gecko, 2 hedgehogs, 10 hermit crabs, 5 different fish tanks with 100+ fish, and 1 hamster.  To the best of my memory, this is a comprehensive list! Ugh! I can't even believe it myself now that I'm looking at it!

This is Charlie. He is the most "unique" animal that we have adopted. He is the only one that found us. He was wandering around our yard dirty, starving, and mangy one morning before I left for work.  We searched for his family, and when they couldn't be found, we were a little relieved since we had already fallen in love with him.

 

When I say that he is unique, that is quite the understatement. When we first got him we thought he was just a disobedient dog because he would bark and spin in circles every time we gave him a command. It was quite frustrating until we realized that he only understood Spanish!  We couldn't believe it either!  Don't worry, if you come to visit he is now bilingual so if you talk to him in English, he will understand you now! He loves to be held, especially in a sling like the above photo, and he is a hugger. He runs to us and jumps on us and hugs us!  It makes us all feel like he knows that we rescued him. He takes every opportunity to show what seems to be appreciation to us for the love that we have shown him. The fact is, he makes us smile everyday because of the large doses of love he gives us!

 

Charlie is usually snuggling close to me in the mornings as I do my devotion, and I got to thinking about how I show my appreciation to God for the fact that he rescued me! I sacrificed very little to rescue Charlie. God sacrificed His own Son to rescue me! Jesus gave his life for me. I don't have the right to go days without thinking about the sacrifice made for me, it was too great!

 

I know this dog story is a little silly, but it is one of the unique ways that God speaks to me. He wants to speak to you too. He wants you to remember the sacrifice Jesus made for you. He wants you to tell everyone you know about how God made a way for your salvation, and then live your life purposefully loving on Him. Share God's love at every turn.  Anyone that has visited my home knows how much Charlie loves us. It is unmistakable!  He never wants to leave our lap.....ever!  That may aggravate us at times, but it will never aggravate the lover of our souls.  He desires to have us close. He desires us to be in His lap as we face every part of our lives. He desires us to never leave His side. 

 

We have been rescued by the Creator of the universe. That is something to be thankful for every minute of every day for the rest of our lives!