Rather than hold my hand in the hospital, Karlyn decided to go to Hawaii Spring Break with a couple of fellow teachers and several friends. I don’t blame her since COVID rules would not have allowed her into the hospital… so as a good father I ‘volunteered’ to take her dog to a lodging place on my way to Emory early Monday morning.
Madden is a hundred-pound Belgian Malinois with the same playful demeanor as Mo, the Yellow Labrador we had when the kids were growing up. I followed Karlyn’s directions to the letter after parking my car in front of her house and raising the hatchback. Everything was going perfectly until I locked her front door and the dog saw a neighborhood cat run through the yard. Before I knew it, I was leaping off the porch with leash in hand, hoping I would not lose the dog… or break an ankle.
Twenty-five years ago, Mo used to drag me through our neighborhood in similar fashion after spotting a squirrel or other creature. Madden seemed just as strong, but I held on and finally pulled him to a stop in the neighbor’s yard as the sun was rising. Eventually I got the pet into my car and delivered him to the Doggie Care facility before heading to the hospital. The things we do for our kids…
One of Jesus’ goals on earth was to communicate the love of the Father. “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11)
Notice the exclamation point… ‘There are good parents in this crowd listening to Me. You would do anything for your children. You have to know… My Father, who is also your Father, loves like no parent ever has. He is the best… the perfect Father of lights!’
‘But, what about this…? And what about that…?’ we argue, because deep down we sometimes question the goodness of God. Here is where trust must overcome doubt… where faith must outweigh sight… and where spiritual reality must trump human logic.
“Though He slay me, still will I trust Him,” a suffering Job declared. Cases for unbelief are common, but Jesus says: ‘Listen to the truth… you will not understand everything you see or experience on earth, but count on this: My Father, who is your Father, is for you. He loves you more than you can comprehend.’
In all of history, no human being has ever experienced exactly what Jesus did: the pain, the rejection, the injustice, and the cruelest of deaths. Yet as His enemies taunted and tortured Him, the Son trusted His Father. He forgave His murderers. He took all our sin upon Himself. He defeated death. He made the way for us to know the Father… which is eternal life.
“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” James 1:17
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3