July 16, 2021 – Click here to listen
This has been a very sad week for my wife and me. The loss of our little dog is with us practically every moment. A friend wrote and said, Dogs are so special in our lives. So sorry to hear about yours. They give so much and ask so little. They seem to live life so simply. Wouldn’t we be more pleasing to God if we could have the unconditional faith in our heavenly Father that our dogs have in us their owners?
That was certainly true about our little dog. He was gentle and loving. He wasn’t one of those annoying little yapping dogs. In fact, I never heard him utter a sound except one time when I accidentally stepped on his tail and he let out a yelp, and occasionally while he was asleep and dreaming, he would emit a little ruff, ruff, ruff.
I told my wife I pray we never lose one of our sons or grandchildren; no one wants to outlive their kids. My brother lost his little son at five years old to a brain tumor. I was very close to that boy, and he was even named after me. Jim told me one time that no one could understand the pain he endured. I believe his son’s death along with the premature death of our mother a couple of years later also due to a brain tumor was the primary reason that he committed suicide. And that event was an entirely different level of pain for me.
Someone has said that you never get over the loss of a loved one; you just learn to live with it. Such has been the case for me. There is still a giant hole in my heart that I do not think will be filled until the Lord takes me home. I live with it, but I’m haunted by it.
Praise God that His mercy reigns forever. One of the names for Him in the Bible is the “Comforter”. It is appropriate and without His presence in my life I simply would not want to live.
A good friend of mine just put his wife in hospice. She is a lovely person and he sent me some photos of her being medevacked to her childhood home in Wisconsin to see her family before she passes on. He was on the same plane, and I could tell from the photo that he is beyond sad and is devastated.
I told him that soon she would be in the arms of Jesus, and He would blanket her in His glorious love and give her a new body free from cancer and perfect in every way and He would take her to the place He has prepared for her where she will find peace, joy, and rest in Him. Knowing that provides a degree of comfort to my friend; however, his best friend will soon be taken from him. It hurts!
I pray for him with every ounce of my being and ask you to do so as well. His name is Bob. My prayer for him is that he utterly turns it over to the Lord.
Psalm 34:18.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!