Knowing I am loved

Here it is, the Sunday after Christmas and I have been very lazy. Normally I would have done some laundry, cleaned up the house a little bit and maybe done some work in the yard. But today I do not feel like doing anything. I have watched some TV, searched the internet, and played with the puppy. Oh yeah, I have a puppy. She is an 8 month old shitzu-jack russell mix and is truly therapy to me. She is the best thing we ever did for our other dog-a 5 (or 6) year old blue doberman who has achondroplasia dwarfism and alopecia. He, like most of our other animals, is a rescue from a local shelter. We have had so many animals and only one has ever been purchased for a goodly sum (lol...I just liked the sound of that) and that was our rottie, Roxie, or as her papered name read "Lady Roxanne Tychelle Von Rutger". She was our pick of the litter and we loved her dearly. We lost her last January and after 3 weeks I was finally able to pick her bed up. Her food dishes still contained her food and water for at least a month after she passed. (more to come in a later post). Jessie was our shepherd/lab mix that was abandoned at our church home in Georgia. We scooped him up and took him home and loved him for 13 years, through cancer, blindness and hearing loss. We lost him 8 months prior to losing Roxie. Losing them was so very painful. For those of you who have ever loved a pet, you will understand the profound loss when they are gone. For us it was even more. We brought them from Georgia to Florida after John retired from the navy. Many friendships were forged over these two pets. I think of their needs and how we made sure they were well cared for. Even in Jessie's last months not being able to see or hear, we made sure he knew we were still there.

And it reminds me of how God wraps me in His arms and holds me close when I am unable to "see" or "hear" Him. Sometimes because I am stubborn and sometimes because He needs for me to grow in my faith. I cannot rely on feeling God's presence. I need to rely on His word that says "He will never leave me nor forsake me". He picked me out of the litter and rescued me. Sometimes I am so blind, deaf and scared. But always He is there.

Introduction

Hello. This is the first of what I hope will be many blogs and the start of what I hope will be many new friendships. For those of you who have ever struggled with the concept of what it means to live by faith and not by sight, you are not alone. I am finding that there are many of us out there. The God that I love has been revealing Himself through mysterious ways and the principals of Christ-like living certainly go beyond what I can humanly comprehend. He uses circumstances that I think are hopeless to reveal the hope that is in Him and to show me that my faith in Him is ever so small, yet His faithfulness is huge. I stand in wonder and amazement at His governance in my life and wish that I understood even a portion. Let my blog journey begin...