Both of my sweet children have a stuffed puppy. They both came up with very creative names for their puppies... Puppy! Yes, the name of both is just Puppy (although Nati Grace has nicknamed hers Puppa for short).
It seems that about once every other week or so, the smell of Puppy and Puppy becomes simply overwhelming. So, in a pillowcase on the gentle cycle they get a stuffed canine washing. Both Puppy and Puppy seem to hold up pretty well through the process. It is the drying that becomes tricky for them. I have a fear that the dryer might get a little too hot for their sensitive skin, so I just hang them out to dry.
All of a sudden, it hit me! I am just hanging them out to dry! We have all felt that we have been hung out by someone before. There I stood in my little washing room feeling sorry for Puppy and Puppy hoping that the hanger was not hurting their ears and feeling somewhat guilty that I was leaving in a predicament that, on their own, they could not get out of even if they wanted to.
How often have I felt I have been hung out to dry by loved ones, friends, acquaintances, ... God? Oh, it sounds so bad that I would say that I may feel that I have been abandoned by God, right? Is that what Job felt, abandoned, when everything but his life was ripped away? Is that what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were convinced had happened when they faced the fiery furnance? Did Daniel feel abandoned when he realized the lions were real... and hungry? Is that what my Christ felt when His Father turned His face away because of my sin, your sin?
I don't know which disturbs me more: feeling sadness for two inanimate stuffed dogs or the fact that I found myself talking to them and telling them not to worry, "Jake and Nati Grace still love you." But what did not disturb me was the gentle reminder from my Lord that I have not been left alone or hung out to dry. I have, instead, had His gracious arms wrapped around me and even when humans may "do me wrong," or I may in turn "hang someone out to dry," forgiveness from my Savior is quick and sufficient to bring me off of the hangers and back into His loving arms.
On a side note: Puppy and Puppy are always glad that they return to the loving arms of Jake and Nati Grace!
"And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." ~2 Corinthians 12:9-10
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