Laura and I have talked about getting a dog from time to time for years. We have always come down on the side of the dictates of logic: Evan has allergies that set off asthma attacks, we travel and cannot be tied down, we have no extra time…
About three weeks ago, I had a weird thought out of the blue. It was almost a statement of fact in my mind, “It is time to get a dog.” About the same time, unknown to me, Laura felt the same way. After a conversation where we both found to our surprise that we both thought it was time for a dog, she began looking for rescued dogs on the internet. She found a dog that was supposed to be the least likely breed to cause allergies to go into overdrive, just over one year old – completely trained, right size and look for her.
Out of the three hundred dogs she looked at that needed rescued, she only wanted one – Buddy. She requested information only to find that Buddy was already adopted. It has not been the easiest couple of months for us, not much is working like we would like it to. She closed her laptop, went upstairs, and thought “Okay, Lord, not even a dog. But I guess if that is how you want it to be then so be it. I don’t understand all the no’s recently but alright.”
So three days later, she gets a call that Buddy has been returned and out of the more than a dozen people that were still lined up to bring Buddy home, they had chosen to call us. Somehow they felt we were the right family for him. Two days later, we welcomed Buddy into our home for a “test run.”
That was over a week ago, and Evan has no symptoms of allergies and Buddy has found a home. From day one, it was like Buddy was always here – I never expected such a thing. He is totally obedient, totally at home with our kids, totally good with not destroying anything, totally trained, and totally content. If I were to send him back , still being in our trial period from the dog rescue, I think my wife and kids might never look at dad the same way again. They would always be thinking, “that is the guy that made us give Buddy back. We had a chance for happiness and he ruined it.”
Buddy is “the best Christmas present ever,” a great lover of tug-of-war even at his small size for our
boys, adored by Cailin, and loves Laura – she is not the world’s biggest dog person. Now I have no idea why God wanted us to have a dog, but I cannot get around the fact that He did. The creator of the universe, somehow, wanted to bless this family and these precious kids with the cutest, most lovable, least trouble dog imaginable – and we did not even need to train him to be like this.
Maybe God gave us Buddy because we needed some more laughter and fun, maybe our kids needed to learn some responsibility – probably not, maybe it was for some reason in the future we cannot possible understand today. What I do know is that Buddy is a sign to me of God’s provision and care in every little area of our lives. A very special “Merry Christmas.” God shows love in some of the same ways that we do – in the little things, by reaching out a hand to touch and say I care about you in the very details of your life and will provide all that you need. Thanks God for Buddy!