Enter tomorrow with gladness

Lucky has not fully suspended his hunger strike. He ate the rib bones with astonishing gusto, but left the Pedigree dry nuggets alone, even though they were soaked in beef broth. However, while I was packing things away for our beach trip this morn, I noticed out of the corner of my eye Lucky streaking across the backyard, the pup in hot pursuit. Lucky dipped into the universal dog play position and then the brief game ended. Either he knows Zach's stay with us is coming to an end today, or he has decided maybe playing with the pup is sort of fun. Either way about it, I feel a strange heaviness knowing our foster pup will be leaving. I really have no choice- just a few days after we return from the beach, we are off again for 3 days to help Matt furnish and move into his new digs at Washington and Lee.

I felt a similar heaviness when my boys went off to college. And the parallels are alike in another way. Just when you start seeing the glimmer of a fantastic being emerging from all your sacrifice and care, off they go to thrill other people. You are left high and dry. Zach, after just one week, has learned to go out the dog door and do his toilette on his own. I walked him every half hour for the 10 days he was here, telling him excitedly that "It's time to go potty!!!" til he began to leap with joy when I would announce it was potty time. And just when he gets it, understands it, and is now almost a perfect pup, someone else will reap the reward of my work.

These creatures put in my care, my boys, my dogs, my daughter.... they are all just on loan. I get to pour out my lifeblood on them and then with wrinkled, bony fingers point the way to the exit door into their tomorrows. If they go with wagging tails, I am content. If they glance back, I am rewarded.

Ezra 9:9
He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection