In The Dog House

Colossians 1:13-14 "For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, ¹⁴ who purchased our freedom^[d] and forgave our sins."  NLT

To go along with the chaos that we usually have in our lives, sweetheart and I recently started fostering for a local dog rescue association .  We foster border collies of all ages and personalities.  www.allbordercollierescue.com

The first rescue we received was Dorie.  She is the sweetest border collie of all time, a true testament to the ability of dogs to forgive and forget.  She came from a dog hoarder/puppy mill.  At the time of the seizure, there were 167+ dogs at the farm.  The conditions that they came from were horrendous.  It defies the imagination how someone could keep such beautiful creatures in that kind of living hell.  Yet, in spite of all her pain and sorrow, Dorie was ready to love anyone who would love her back.  She kept no grudges and let nothing stand in the way of her happiness.  A wonderful lady gave her a forever home where she could be happy every day.

The next one we took is a puppy.  Her name started out as missee, short for Miss Piggy, apparently because she liked to eat so much.  When she came to stay with us, sweetheart, a helicopter pilot,  changed her name to Rotor because she turned in circles all the time.  She was found under a house along with 11 brothers and sisters.  Sadly, only a few lived past the first few days.  She is our "foster failure" as they say in the "biz" and will be turning in circles at our house for years to come.  She is one taco short of a bag full but she makes us laugh and keeps us on our toes.  I start agility training with her tomorrow at a friends house.  I hope that it uses up some of her boundless energy.  My son has shown an interest in the dogs and hopefully will be going with me to some of the events in the future.

Rowdy was next on the hit parade.  He was only a few weeks old when he came and spent the first few nights cuddled up to our old aussie Cali who was only too glad to baby him.  He spent a couple of weeks learning manners and reminding us that puppy's are a lot of work.  Much like children, they require constant care and attention.  If they aren't hungry or bored, they are making sure you spend every waking minute cleaning up their mistakes.  He lived up to his name and kept everyone entertained with his ability to get into everything, including the fish pond.  Puppies don't stay long in foster care and last week he went to a nice young couple in the area who will give him lots of love and help him turn into a well mannered member of the dog world.

As I watch these broken spirits come into our home, battered and bruised, wanting only to be loved and accepted, it brings to mind how similar it is to how we come before our Lord.  Often unloved, more often unwanted, full of scars and the dirt of the world, we stand before Him, asking only that He takes us in.  It is with great tenderness that He opens the door to His home and brings us inside.  He loves us and cares for us and feeds us with His Word.  But then He does something more.  After we are revived and recovered, He send us out into the world to bless others.  But this time we are free.  Free to see just how blessed we are, running out into the sunlight and telling the world how great our new home is.  He asks only that we bring more broken spirits into His home, helping them to recover and be made whole again.  The cycle is constant and we are all "foster homes" for His children.  Just as in fostering dogs, there is a never ending stream of brothers and sisters in need.  The Message has a great translation of James 5:19-20 "My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God's truth, don't write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God." Open your heart and home today to those in need.  The blessings are endless.  Oh and if you find yourself in need of a border collie, I am just the person you need to see!