This week, we got a puppy. Ellie was sweetest, cutest, most precious little puppy you will ever meet. Unfortunately, our dog Gordon didn't think so. After two short days, we had to take her straight back to the adoption agency we got her from. It was simply the best decision for both dogs.
I wont lie, I could hardly hold it together when I handed her back to the lady at the shelter. I cried my eyes out the second I got back in my car to make the long drive home. It might sound silly, but I already felt so attached to her! I am, admittedly, very tender-hearted towards animals... and this situation was no exception! For months (years, really) I have wanted a puppy. I was so excited when we decided this was the right time for our family to get one. I'd planned to take road trips and visit friends with her before we even picked her up.
It dawned on me today that this grief was a little deeper than being sad to give a puppy up. It related so directly to things I have been struggling with for months now. The whole scenario represented giving up my plans. My mom said something so simple, yet so profound to me today: "I think God had a reason for not letting it work out". Interesting.
In that moment, I realized that while I loved that little puppy, we made the right decision. My sadness was far more about the loss of my vision for the future. God has been trying to break me of my desire to control the future all year. This was simply another opportunity to learn.
Its hard. I never want this lesson to sound cliche. Though it may seem simple, it is something I wrestle with every day. I am so far from perfect, and I still hand God my to-do list: complete with detailed plans for my life. He never fails to show me that my plans are complete rubbish when compared to His plan for me.
So today, instead of sadness, I am choosing to be thankful for that sweet puppy. Her brief presence in my life was a reminder that sometimes God's ways are not my ways... And when it doesn't work out, He has a reason for it.
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."
Isaiah 55:8-9
