A Somber Post

Yesterday was a hard day. And even in that I know that others had a much harder day. But sad it still was. Yesterday our Lady dog was hit by a car going too fast down our road. She had slipped out to run to her apple orchard across the street--a place she knew she wasn't supposed to go and we were still working to patch in our gate to keep her from the danger that she didn't know was there.

It's amazing how much you come to love these little pets that God gives us. We got Lady when she was 3 months old and she lived with us until she was 7.5 months. She was still just a big baby (already around 65 pounds) and quite frankly was a ton of work for me. In the 4 months that we had her I was with her almost every day. She was a little rascal--chewing our books, eating food off the counter, destroying shoes and furniture, getting into our garden and eating all our tomatoes (her favorite--what a strange dog!). She wasn't afraid of anything (except Wolfie's rage when she would steal his bones) and she even tried to jump off 2 cliffs while we were hiking.

But God gave her to us for 4 precious months and the joy she brought exceeded all the work. Lady was my first dog and being a self proclaimed, "not a dog person," Lady wriggled her way into my heart with her mischievous nature, sweet brown eyes, and natural inclination to shake paws. Chris and I are grieving our sweet pup. I don't think we could've asked for a more affectionate and dear Malamute.

This is the second pet I have buried since moving onto our property this year and every time death hits, it is just a reminder to me that there is something very final and wrong about death. Around me I know friends who have buried a baby, friends who have buried a mother, and friends who have buried a grandfather all in the last few weeks. And just yesterday as we buried our puppy, my heart broke for the families in Connecticut who were burying their precious little children. I'm sure their grief far outweighed my own. It makes me long for a day when there will be no more death. Death is so terrible and perhaps the hardest thing is that there is nothing in my power that I can do to reverse it.

But we are not like those without hope because as Christians we can look forward to a day when death will be no more. When we are powerless against death we can look to the One who has conquered death. He is our hope. What great hope there is in the incarnation that we celebrate at this time of year because Christ has come. The Messiah took on flesh as a little baby so that He could conquer death for us on the cross. What a terrible death he died for our sakes but then he ROSE AGAIN! Hallelujah! We long for the new heaven and the new earth.

Chris and I went to the Messiah on Monday night and these words brought such joy and hope to our hearts:

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Job 19:25-26

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 1 Cor. 15:20

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump:
for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed. 1 Cor. 15:51-52