She was lying on the floor at the feet of an elderly gentleman. Upon approach, she lifted her head to acknowledge me with soft amber eyes. My heart leaped but then quickly sank as I realized that the adoption volunteers were packing up to leave, and she was still waiting. Her collar read, “Adopt Me.”
I couldn’t resist sitting on the floor next to her; immediately she puppy crawled into my lap. “How come no one has scooped her up?” I asked her handler.
“That’s what I’m wondering,” he answered. “I guess everybody’s interested in the younger pups.”
“How old is she?”
“Nine months.”
Just then Mike turned the corner and found me. “I was going to tell you not to come back here,” he smiled and laughed.
We introduced ourselves to the volunteers and they asked if we were interested in adopting. “No,” we responded almost simultaneously. “We’ve got our hands full already,” I stated and explained that we were reluctant to take on any more pets.
But as we gave love to the puppy, our hearts changed our minds. I silently said a prayer and then Mike and I looked at each other and the words didn’t need to be spoken. She was already ours.
We had been shopping for fish for our home tank; we left with a Boxador puppy named Zena. When I asked her if she was ready to go home, she stood up to leave and walked right out the door of the store without looking back.
During the drive home, as Zena slept in my lap, every so often she would open her sleepy eyes to look at me like she wanted to make sure her rescue was real, that she wasn’t dreaming.
As I looked out the truck window at the beautiful scenery of the Hualapai Mountains, I couldn’t help but be thankful for my own rescue, salvation, knowing that one day I would be going home too.
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who
brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good
news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to
Zion, “Your God reigns.”
Isaiah 52:7
A couple of days later, Zena was examined by our local veterinarian at the Humane Society. “How does she get along with the rest of your tribe?” the Vet asked.
“She fits right in,” I smiled and answered. “When we met her, we knew she would. I like that, Doc, our tribe.”
Many pet owners see their pets as family.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary defines “Tribe” as “a collection of families descending from one ancestor. The “twelve tribes” of the Hebrews were the twelve collections of families which sprang from the sons of Jacob. In Matthew 24:30 the word has a wider significance. The tribes of Israel are referred to as types of the spiritual family of God (Revelation 7). (See ISRAEL, KINGDOM OF; JUDAH, KINGDOM OF.)” https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/tribe/
Did you catch the first sentence of that definition of “tribe”?!” “A collection of families descending from one ancestor.” That’s a beautiful description of the Church whose ancestor is Jesus.
Salvation is something I ponder often. It’s the first thing on my mind when I wake up. I’m thankful to raise my hands in praise and live out another day in service to my King.
It hasn’t always been that way though. The hubris of my youth carried over into adulthood for too long and had blinded me, turning me away from Jesus. It was only a decade ago when I was much like the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).
Being a lost sheep is lonely (Luke 15:3-7). As a lost sheep, it felt like I was living in a bog; constantly fighting through the muck. My self-reliance took me into a soulless existence.
The beauty of what I now understand, what I know, is that I was never alone (John 14:18).
After we humans failed our God (Genesis 3), the rescue of our souls eventually came through one man, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior (The Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke). https://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-doctrine-salvation.html
I’ve often wondered what went through Adam’s and Eve’s minds after God sent them out of the garden of Eden (v. 23). Scripture doesn’t tell us.
In searching for clues, I have read quite a bit of Apocrypha. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apocrypha Something that has stuck with me from Chapter II of the “First Book of Adam and Eve” in “The Lost Books of the Bible,” by Joseph B. Lumpkin is, “… Adam and Eve, went out of the garden, they walked the ground on their feet, not knowing where they were going (v. 1).” (Emphasis added.)
Verse 2 goes on to say, “… they feared and trembled, and fell on their faces from the fear that came over them and they were as though they were dead.”
Chapter 4, verse 2 tells that “… when Adam looked at his flesh he saw that it was altered, and he cried bitterly, he and Eve cried, over what they had done.”
As Resurrection Day approaches, my prayer is that we all cry out to God for what he has done to save the creatures that He so loves from what they have done.
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he
loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Ephesians 1:4-5
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