Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Read Luke 11:5-13

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?

Luke 11:11

December of 2016 our family moved from seminary in Wilmore, KY back to the area with plans to plant Church of the Ascension. It was 4 days before Christmas when we moved. Friends drove down to help us drive our moving truck and cars back here. On the first full day back, Becki and I accomplished one of our promises to the kids for moving them in the middle of the school year. We knew it was hard for them to move away from their friends. So we promised to get them a puppy.

Becki and I got a small black Lab/Plott Hound puppy. The kids were ecstatic that they had a dog. We had had a family cat we had to give away when we moved to seminary since the school didn’t allow pets. They were even happier when we showed them the new family puppy. It didn’t take long until they named him Finn.

Within a couple months, Finn had developed a knack for tearing threads out of the carpet with his teeth. He was eating the threads. What made it worse was when he became sick and no longer had bowel movements. We took him to an emergency vet who ran x-rays to figure out what was happening. Turns out that the carpet threads had tied up inside him. The solution was a $4,000 surgery, to put him down, or to give him away to an agency that would attempt the surgery but also keep him.

There were lots of tears in that veterinarian visit. Teary eyed, I signed over the family puppy with the hopes that he would live and be adopted by a family who would take care of him. The kids were distraught—not to mention the thought, “How did we lose the Christmas puppy?!” Aidan asked me to call and find out if Finn survived the procedure and had been adopted a few hours after we got back home.

He had been praying for Finn to be okay, and if Jesus was willing, to give him back. Aidan didn’t tell us that he had been asking the Lord to give the dog back. Becki and I were stunned—the response that came back from the vet was that Finn came through the surgery, would be okay, and that the agency I signed him over to was returning him to us! They covered the cost of his procedure, too.

Finn was and is a happy, energetic, and loyal dog who has just turned 8 years old. If our Lord Jesus laid down his life to reconcile us to God—the greatest gift we could ever be given—how kind is he then to give us any lesser thing when we truly ask? He is kinder than we are, mightier than we are, and wiser than we are. Maybe the tears and challenges of the present are about to be an opportunity to see his provision.

Collect:  Most loving Father, you will us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on the One who cares for us. Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested unto us in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p 700)

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

In Advent, we see the faithfulness of God in providing for our greatest need. Since he has met that great need, let’s be quick to run to him for all our lesser needs with the confidence of a child.

+Bishop Darryl

PRAYER FOCUS:  Ask the Lord for the faith of a child