Never ending supply of woes

I think Honeybun spent our 12 days away from her by gnawing on her toes. As a result, when we brought her to the vet for all her yearly vaccines and mentioned we'd noticed a small sore between her toes, the vet noticed a swollen pad and small sores we had not. The vet was a sweet young thing, far too young to have graduated from anything but elementary school to my eyes, and told us that it was likely due to some allergy, either food or environmental.  Honeybun had already faced the degradation of having her anal glands manually expressed, a function that in my opinion, no dog should ever ever be unable to perform on their own. And now, she was itching herself out of an agility job, with her chewing at her paws.  Of course, when I told Asherel, she was delighted, "Does this mean I can get her dog booties?"

Honeybun has hats, dresses, coats, shirts, PJs and even a dog swimsuit, but I have drawn a line in the sand over dog shoes. Ironically, they might actually not be a bad idea....

So armed with a bag of medicines, including instructions for daily foot soaks that involve keeping her paw in a cup of warm medicine soak for 5-10 minutes, we headed home. Honeybun looked depressed, despite the fact that Asherel had bought her a cute pink hat that said, "I'm Perfect". I think she suspected agility training would be suspended for a few days, and she doesn't necessarily love the agility part, but she does love the food rewards. Meanwhile, we are also dosing her with benadryl. If it is a food allergy, this won't help, but if environmental it will.

So foot soak time arrived and I had Asherel straight jacket Honeybun in a tight football hold against her chest. The five minutes were still the slowest 5 minutes in history. First, Honeybun was sure the foot soak was edible and kept trying desperately to escape the throttle hold so she could eat the bowl of medicine. Then she finally acquiesced- tail slung between her legs, ears back, face pathetically woebegone.  As the 5 minutes thankfully elapsed, I lifted the foot to apply the topical medicine. That was when I realized I had soaked the wrong foot.

I had just exchanged a series of emails with a sweet dear friend who makes Job's troubles sound like play time.  She said many profound things, one of which was that she didn't know what God was trying to teach her, but knew that understanding was not needed to claim His grace.  What a beautiful thought!  So much we don't understand. There would be no Grace were it contingent upon understanding.

I know some things are clear about trials. God almost never explains His purpose specifically but He always supplies His presence through them. They may appear otherwise, but are always administered in love from Someone with a perspective we cannot have.  What often looks like the worst thing that could happen to us, can turn out to be the pivotal moment of growth, self awareness, clarification of who we are in the essence of our relationship with God and with others. They are rarely easy, but they always change our character and our perspective....whether for better or for worse seems to be something that we can control and I suspect is at the core of God's purpose in sending them.

 This morning when I looked at Honeybun's foot, the sore was gone. The pad seemed much better, and the Benadryl seems to have helped her itchiness. I know my friend probably didn't awaken to a trouble free morning, but I know she still nestled in God's football hold as she faced the soaking struggles of the day.

2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.