A Dog and the Grace of God

Remember the small 4 lb. puppy our church gave Steve in the summer of 2010? Marlee was supposed to be 10-12lbs full grown. At 2 years of age when she goes for walks, she pulls with greater strength than you would expect from her 16 lb frame. On every walk she seems to think the only reason anyone has walked out of their house is to greet her.

 We haven't felt comfortable letting her roam the house and so she has spent many hours confined to one room behind a black metal enclosure.Recently we greatly expanded Marlee's inside the house world. Hopeful that she had matured past biting holes in the walls or destroying lamps, we put away the metal enclosure that had so often defined the borders of her world. The occasion for this added freedom was Steve's surgery and the 3 days when he centered his life around the room that held his dog. Steve is allergic to cats and he has only owned 2 dogs and those in the last 20 years. He has managed to become a devoted dog owner without going over the edge, first to his Brittany spaniel and now to his Bichon Frise. He and I are both dog people but that doesn't mean that we are as diligent and as faithful as we should be about discipline and exercise.

Steve came home groggy from all the medications. He took up residence in our recliner and welcomed his puppy now freed from her "prison". At first she leaped onto his lap attempting to snuggle on his bandaged side. After Steve scooted to the other side of the his chair, Marlee settled into the crevice under his better shoulder. For 3 days Marlee took some variation of this position.  Steve's hand kept a silent rhythm,as he stroked again and again Marlee's recently groomed fur. At times she did not look like a separate creature, but somehow part of her master. I'm sure Steve felt the pain, but it must have been momentarily dulled with each loving stroke.

Marlee now walks wherever she wants, the bedrooms being her only forbidden territory. So far no emptied trashcans, no broken lamps, no more gaping off white blotches of dry wall marring the smoothly painted walls. Instead we have a loving dog who wants to share as much as possible in our lives. Dogs can not comprehend grace but that doesn't stop them from being a conduit for it. Her past behavior did not merit her extra freedom. The three unpainted blotches of spackling bear testimony to that truth. Neither do our less than dog whisperer  ways earn my husband the adulation of  a small lively dog with a checkered past.

He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness ----
Titus 3:5

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