Piper Lessons

Piper’s vet visit reminded me that we should trust God even when we don’t understand.

Last week, our dog Piper, was acting a little puny. I decided I should take her to the vet. He thought that she probably had an abscessed tooth. He prescribed an antibiotic and I set up a cleaning appointment for yesterday. There’s something that just seems wrong to me about paying to get a dog’s teeth cleaned. I mean, when I was growing up no one would have dreamed of getting their dog’s teeth cleaned. Did bones stop working?

Anyway, we got her from the pound a couple of years ago and she was missing some teeth then. So, yesterday morning, I couldn’t give her any breakfast because they have to put her to sleep to clean her teeth. The other dog got to eat. I don’t know when I have felt like such a heel as when she kept following me around wagging her tail. Where was her morning treat? Where was her breakfast?

I tried explaining it, but of course, she’s a dog. She didn’t get it. When I got her harness to put her in he car, she was excited, until we got to the vet.

Remember how I said I didn’t know when I had felt as badly as when I didn’t give her breakfast? Well, multiply it times ten when we got to the vet. She jumped up on me and when I squatted down on the floor beside her, she began to whine. This dog NEVER whines. I’ve never heard her make that sound. She was breaking my heart.

All I was trying to do was get her some medical attention to make her feel better and stay healthy. The vet visit was in her best interest. Why couldn’t she understand that? Didn’t she know I wasn’t abandoning her? Don’t I always come for her? Why didn’t she trust me?

I was pondering the entire heart wrenching ordeal on the way home. Of course she couldn’t understand because she’s a dog not a person. I found myself praying about doing what is best and not being understood or appreciated.

I began to get a tiny glimmer of how I think God feels when He is dealing with us and our best interests. Have you ever been in a situation where you think God has abandoned you? Have you ever felt like He didn’t care or He was allowing you to be mistreated in some way?

Are you ever able to look back on those circumstances and see how He was busy at work even though you didn’t see it? Perhaps that lost job or lost relationship was for the best? Perhaps that wrong turn, turned out to be the right way after all?

When our hearts belong to Jesus, we never walk alone. God is always with us and always working with our best interests at heart. Sometimes, like Piper, we just can’t see it or understand because we’re not God. But, unlike Piper, we can choose to trust. The God who sent his only son to save us, will never abandon us.

He has a plan even when all seems lost. Piper reminded me of that. Maybe you needed a reminder too. By the way, her teeth turned out just fine and she’s happy to be home.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂