Our Hope and Our Model

I was peacefully eating breakfast yesterday, reading my Bible study in the still, quiet morning. No one was awake but me. I munched my special homemade bread and sipped my freshly ground coffee. The scent of peace drifted over the scene.

Then the bedroom door crashed open, and our crazy terrier Lucky came running out. With an explosion not unlike Mount Vesuvius, he spewed yellowish goo and a huge gob of something that looked like a partially digested mound of paper, grass, and LKW (Lord Knows What.) Then he hurried out the dog door, presumably to complete whatever tummy unrest had unfortunately erupted in our living room.

Well, that certainly put a kibosh on the peace and sweet scent of the morning...At least now I knew why he has been acting so strangely lately. He was busily preparing his canine enactment of the Big Bang. Afterwards, he ate his breakfast lustily and seemed normal the rest of the day. No more strange wanting to crawl into my lap, or bumping his nose into things. I think he had had a massive tummy ache and now felt much better. Whatever nasty thing he had eaten that he shouldn't have appeared to have found its way out.

I felt a little terrible. All those days that he had been begging for attention, and I was getting annoyed were because his tummy hurt. He wanted comfort, and since he couldn't use words, he used dog language. I didn't understand. And I didn't comfort him nearly as much as I should have.

Lucky is not alone in not being proficient at expressing despair or distress. So many of us are hurting, and we express it with anger. Anger at each other, loved ones, and God. Or we express it through destructive behavior or addictions. Some of us turn our discontent upon ourselves, in depression or fretful continual worry. And almost all of those responses, instead of drawing others near to help us, push them further away.

With one notable exception.

God knows why we do all the things we do. God knows what we are trying to communicate in such dysfunctional ways. God knows our heart,  and our hurts...and the remedy. And even when we spew our worst vitriol His way, He doesn't run from us. He cradles our soul gently until the awful causes of our angst has been dispelled, and then He reminds us we are loved, have always been loved, will always be loved.

That's our hope, and our model.

When Lucky came back inside, I called him over and rubbed his tummy. He was happy enough to accept my ministrations, but he no longer was demanding it. I hope next time I will be gentler in understanding the need behind the annoying attempts to communicate it.

***********

Psalm 63
My Soul Thirsts for You
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
 my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
7 for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.