A Beautiful Metaphor of God’s Love

A dear friend called me this morning to let me know she and her husband are sending their beloved dog to heaven today, and I am deeply humbled not only by their incredible love and compassion. I am deeply humbled by how the Lord once again showed me His majesty through the humble, Godly love of one of His children.

As I spoke to my friend just shortly before the veterinarian would arrive to help their dog home to heaven, my friend interrupted our conversation to share with me something her husband had done. Husband and wife sat with their two dogs by their neighborhood lake, enjoying the presence of the Lord and their final hour or so with their dog.

My friend told me that as the sun shone strong on the four of them, her husband opened up their beach umbrella to ensure their sweet dog Katie would be cool and comfortable in the shade. I don’t know about you, but I see the Lord at work in this simple gesture on the part of my friend’s husband.

So often in hard times, when we face loss, when we experience pain, when we do not understand why we have to go through something difficult, we wonder is God really there? How will I make it through this time? How will I get through this? Why is this happening?

When we seek the Lord, when we pray to Him, when we ask Him for help, even when we pray for a miracle, we often do not experience freedom from the loss and the accompanying pain. But if we open up our hearts and our minds, we see that the Lord opens wide His heart, His hands, His arms, like an umbrella He holds over us from heaven. We can look outside the umbrella to see the pain falling like rain. We can see beyond the umbrella to all the pain falling, hot like the sun that produces 90 degree weather with humidity.

But we can rest assured He holds His umbrella over us, offering us His peace, His comfort, His mercy, His everlasting love as He carries us through. Best of all, His Son Jesus shines down from heaven and fills us from within despite the wide breadth of the umbrella.

The umbrella keeps out what God allows to fall all round us, but lets in all the glory of God’s Son. In the midst of everything that hurts, God is there all along holding us just like my friend’s husband placed the umbrella right over their dog to provide her comfort and love in the midst of a phenomenally trying time.

And, in the midst of it all, with God’s umbrella over us, we can experience the joy of knowing no matter what we face – we can rest in God’s love that truly never fails.

Please pray for my friends and their dog Katie as they send her home to be with Jesus in heaven.

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