Yesterday morning, P got up exceptionally early and headed down to the ranch. He had a bunch of things down there that needed to be done and now that it’s stopped raining, he had no excuse to not go ahead and work in the mosquito-infested swamp that is now South Texas.
When Caroline and I woke up about an hour later, I walked by the back door and noticed our dogs weren’t on the back porch. I didn’t think anything of it because, first of all, I don’t think about anything that early in the morning, and secondly, I assumed P had taken them with him to the ranch because he usually does. Caroline and I went on with our morning routine of debating what constitutes a breakfast food and if, in fact, York Peppermint Patties offer any nutritional value, while watching Handy Manny have a lengthy conversation with a hammer.
Between Diego, Dora and Manny, there is really no end to Noggin’s desire to help my child become bilingual, even if it is in the context of having a monkey for a best friend while climbing up Jaguar mountain and visiting with a socket wrench.
Anyway, P called about 45 minutes after we were up to see how our morning was going. I told him it was the usual, I was getting Caroline dressed and ready for her morning at Mother’s Day Out or as I like to call it, Mama Needs Some Quiet. Then, I casually said, “I assume you have the dogs with you.”
And to pull out a tired phrase, I assume y’all know what happens when you assume.
“No, I don’t have the dogs. Are they not in the backyard?”
“Umm, I don’t think so.”
So, I ran out on the back porch and started calling the dogs.
Nothing.
Caroline is following me and just beside herself at the drama that is playing out right before her very eyes. Finally, Scout comes walking up from the other side of the yard, but Bruiser is nowhere to be found. Fortunately, all my yelling for the dogs has attracted the attention of my friends, the construction workers across the street, who, honestly, know more about what happens at our house than we do. In fact, one of them told me they realized when they got to work this morning that Bruiser wasn’t in the yard because he always greets them in the morning. I’m telling y’all it’s just a matter of time before we invite them to all our family functions and Caroline starts calling them “Uncle Tito”.
I tell P that Bruiser is missing and we realize he must have gotten out when P’s employees came by earlier to pick up some equipment they needed. I hurried up and finished getting Caroline dressed and ready and, since we still had some time before MDO started, I drove around the neighborhood while Caroline and I both yelled, “BRUISER! BRUISER!!!”, but he was nowhere to be found. As I walked Caroline to her classroom, she looked up at me and said, “Mama, WHY would Bruiser want to leave our family?”
We said a prayer that Bruiser would come home, I kissed her goodbye and then left to go look for the dog.
I spent my 3 free hours driving, walking, calling all over our neighborhood. P pulled his guys off the job site so that they could drive around and look, and he headed home from the ranch to join the search. Even Gulley and her boys joined our search committee.
No Bruiser.
And I can promise y’all it wasn’t for lack of effort.
Finally, it was time to pick up Caroline from school and as soon as I walked in the door, her teacher asked me if I found our dog because it was all Caroline talked about all morning. In fact, she was even stopping people in the hallway to tell them our tale of pet loss woe and asked for prayer for Bruiser in chapel. I told the teacher that we hadn’t found Bruiser and she gave me a look that conveyed she was mentally calculating the years of therapy that Caroline was going to require due to all the pet negligence.
On the way home, I explained that it was really hot and Bruiser was probably just resting somewhere and would come home later on. Then, P came home and had to get something out of our backhouse. He opened the door and I discovered I was right. Bruiser was resting. IN OUR BACKHOUSE.
He’d been there the WHOLE TIME. THE WHOLE TIME.
I spent precious, free hours that could have been used to weigh the merits of Mossimo vs. Merona in the aisles at Target, looking for a dog that wasn’t even lost. But I wasn’t the only one looking.
P has two guys working for him right now, Gus and Shorty. Normally, Gus runs his own business, but he has been helping P out for the last week, so he and Shorty just met last week. Gus is an awesome Christian man. He’s just one of those people that exudes kindness and gentleness from every pore and if you spend 2 seconds with him, he’ll tell you the source of all his joy and happiness is his faith in Jesus.
Shorty is a little bit of a rough character. I don’t even know his whole story, but I know that life has been hard. He’s done a lot of really rough living and always seems a little beaten down.
Yesterday, when the dog went missing, Gus and Shorty spent 4 hours together, just the two of them, riding around in Gus’s truck looking for Bruiser. And Gus told P later, that while Shorty thought he was just looking for a dog, Gus showed him he was looking for something else. Hope. Joy. Peace.
So, Gus talked to him about God, about the hope found in Jesus, and Shorty listened. He really listened. And when P apologized to Gus for sending them on a mission to look for a dog that wasn’t even lost, Gus told him it didn’t matter because God used that time to make sure that Shorty was found.
I overheard Gus telling P the whole story as they stood on the back porch, I thought about what I’d just read in my study of “Jesus, The One and Only” earlier in the day. Beth Moore was talking about the miracle of the loaves and fishes and how when the need for food arose, Jesus tested his disciples by asking them how they were going to feed the hungry people. The disciples had seen Jesus turn water to wine, heal the lame, raise the dead and yet they were stumped by how on earth He was going to manage to feed all these thousands of people.
Jesus was testing them to see if they understood His ability to provide in every aspect of life. To quote the study, “Christ was teaching them to see Him, His power, and His authority in every area of life.” Then, she asked about ways in which our faith is fragmented.
I realized that earlier in the day, I had told Caroline to pray that we’d find Bruiser and I prayed that we’d find Bruiser, but I kind of threw it out there like it was a silly, frivolous thing to pray for. In the scale of big happenings and tragedies, a lost dog doesn’t really rank that high. But in light of the way all the events of the day unfolded, I realized that I’m doubting God’s authority and power over every area of life. I have Him reserved to handle the really big things, but don’t give Him a lot of the day to day things.
And look what He did today. He used a non-lost dog to save a lost man.
Now, that’s creative.
That’s His power.
“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” Phillippians 4:19