Wednesday, July 23, 2008

On Puppies, Pain, and Everlasting Life

It’s been a long couple of weeks. We had a stomach bug make a slow trip through the house; during that our puppy got badly hurt and had to be put down. It’s been a physically and emotionally draining couple of weeks.

At times like these it’s good to remember that “the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Rom 8:20-22).

As we groan through the labor pains, we look forward to the day when God “will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev 21:4).

Life on this planet is hard sometimes, but we can trust in three things:

God is in control, and He has a reason for the way things are. And He has promised to make it right in the end.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor 4:18).

2 comments:

Nancy said...

I'm sorry you lost your puppy...Just yesterday morning, I went out to our "chicken palace" and found one of my pet hens, Penny, had passed on in the night...I couldn't help thinking about how death effects us when it touches our lives... Sometimes, it creeps in without our notice and sometimes it takes up residence for a while before it is perceived... Having recently lost a family member, I almost felt, in some way, it was wrong to feel sadness at the passing of merely a chicken...

ChrisB said...

Thanks, Nancy.

I almost felt... it was wrong to feel sadness

I understand what you mean, but I don't think it's wrong. I think some animals were created for companionship, and when we lose a companion, we're going to feel the loss.

If you made over the lost pet as if it were a person, that might be different, but people generally don't do that.