My dog Ruby is 10 yrs old. We got her when she was a puppy. She picked us, all the other puppies stayed back played in there pen or were sleeping. One puppy ventured out to meet us. My wife and daughters took to her immediately and with much joy and anticipation we brought her home. My daughters named her after the popular children’s book Max and Ruby. Ruby barely weighs 10 lbs. she is a miniature Shit-Zu. I had to look that spelling up and I am always embarrassed when someone asks what kind of dog she is. I am afraid I am saying it wrong. She has been the best dog she is fun, cute smart loyal she has brought much joy to our lives. She is getting old She doesn’t like to run and play like she once did She doesn’t fetch anymore. She likes to sleep and eat. Ruby and I have been inseparable for almost 10yrs. She sleeps at the foot of my bed crawls up on my lap. When I come home she greets me at the door and jumps up and down until I pet her. But lately, she hasn’t been greeting me and she’s been sleeping in my daughters' room. My love for her has never waned but she acts as if I have done something wrong, and I’m afraid, she is afraid, of me. She has had an infection in her eyes so I have been putting drops in her eyes and she doesn’t like it. Now she has never been an aggressive dog but when I put the drops in she growls and has snapped at me. I went to go pet her the other day and she moved away from me. Ruby doesn’t understand that the drops of medicine I have been putting in her eyes are helping her to see. The medicine doesn’t hurt but all she knows is that I keep doing something to her she doesn’t like.
Ruby is limited in her understanding so I am patient with her. I understand that she is afraid, I put the drops in her eyes because she needs the medicine to be healthy. I don’t expect my dog to understand but I will keep giving her what she needs because I love her. God treats me like I treat my dog. God knows that I am limited in my understanding. God is patient with me but keeps giving me what I need because He knows what's best and He loves me. One of my favorite verses of scripture tells me that when God treats me like a dog. He knows what He is doing. Not only does He know what He is doing, but he also has a good plan. God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah and tells the captives that the plan is to give them hope and access to God.
“ For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11-13
I understand what my dog Ruby is going through, sometimes things happen in my life that I don’t like and I growl and snap. Are you struggling to see? Are the pressures of life squeezing out your joy? God has a medicine that will help with that. I found hope and healing in a relationship with God through His Son Jesus. Put your hope, and your trust in Jesus, you’ll be glad you did.