I wonder if God wonders the same thing about us.
Esmee doesn’t need to fear. They know her by now at that place. They like her, they love on her, they treat her well. Yet somehow she hasn’t yet trusted that that will be her every time experience.
She hasn’t had an easy life. A puppy mill rescue, her early years were likely largely devoid of affection and human contact. She was four years old when I got her, yet was not potty-trained, leash-trained, nor did she even know how to navigate steps. Giving birth to puppies was the sum total of her life experience.
How her life has changed since then. I try to shower love and attention on her now, hoping the message will sink into her soul that she is now safely home.
And doesn’t God do the same to us? He rescues us from a life alone, apart from the knowledge of His care, and now showers us with love, grace, kindness, and mercy on the daily, hoping that eventually we will trust that this is our life now and there is no need to fear. And yet, we do.
It’s not lost on me that my dog resembles a little lamb; I even got her the day before Easter. There is simply no better life lesson for me than to pick up her trembling frame in my arms, than to remember that my loving Shepherd does the same to me.
“…Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.”
(Deuteronomy 33:12 NIV)
