Prayers for Puppies

During the course of a day, I'll wing up a dozen or so prayers to God. I'll tell people that I'll pray for them, and generally I will follow through. The family prays over meals. Jon and I pray each day for and with the children. I pray alone, we pray together.

You get the hang of it, prayer is just a part of our life.

Yet still, I am not really good at it. Not 'good' in the sense that I feel that prayer has to sound a certain way or contain certain words. I don't feel that it has to be done in a certain posture. When I say that I am not 'good' at it, I mean something different.

What I mean is that it is easy to pray for blessings over people or pray for protection or pray a thankful prayer. What is most difficult for me is when I pray for God to move, do something, show himself in some way...and actually expect results.

It's as if my prayer is on trial and I am afraid of the verdict.

The other day, the little dog Hazel was sick. It was pretty bad. At first we didn't know what was wrong. Without going into too much detail, I will just tell you that there was definitely some sort of sharp blockage. Things were coming out all wrong and coming out from both ends. She was obviously uncomfortable, stomach distended, feverish, and bloody (and not bloody in the way I had originally thought).

I started to get worried and my first thought was something to the effect of 'should I call the vet. I don't want to call the vet. A first, emergency trip to the vet would be terribly expensive. Why did we get another dog?'

Never did I think to pray for her.

Jon took a look at her as I was fretting, called one of the boys over, laid their hands on her and said a simple prayer.

I was doubtful.

I just didn't expect anything to change. I mean, if an animal is sick, sure it is possible for God to heal them, but come on, is it really going to happen?

I should know better by now.

But God, in his gentle guidance, was kind enough and patient enough to show me his love again.

Hazel threw up two more times and as I cleaned up the mess, I saw a huge piece of thick, hard tree bark. I showed it to Jon and he just said, "Yup, that's what the problem was. A little dog like that, a big chunk of wood that size...."

There were no fireworks, no burning bushes. Just plain and simple prayer. Asking and receiving. A healing on a little dog. Just because.

Just because God loves me. Just because God loves that we cared enough for a homeless puppy and some heartbroken children.

Just because.