A Lesson from Charley



Meet Charley.  He collects shoes.  He doesn't chew them up.
He just makes a nice little nest and sits with them.

It was January and one of the coldest days in history -  literally. To make it worse, I was at home with a case of pneumonia that I was trying hard to shake. I had things to do. I needed to be at work. Feeling miserable and tired of medicine that didn't seem to help. About 6:30 that morning, when it was still about eleven degrees, my husband stepped outside to leave for work. He was almost immediately back inside. He said, "There's a dog out here!"  I said to bring him inside and he said I was too sick to take care of him. While we were discussing it, the dog walked inside and had a seat in front of me. End of discussion. He was inside.

 

Zorro and Lily, the resident pups, checked out the new guy.  He passed their inspection. And then he promptly fell asleep on my feet. That furry fellow was the color of red pine straw and had a sweet face with beautiful, trusting brown eyes. What he did not have was a collar. I had no idea who he was or where he lived. So, while he rested, I got busy trying to find out who owned him.  Of all places, his owner was found by checking Craigslist.

 

His name turned out to be Charley.  He lived about four blocks away and had been missing since early afternoon the day before.  Poor Charley had spent the night outside with temperatures in the single digits at times.  His family was so afraid that he had not made it, but they had hope.  Charley stayed with me all day and I fell hopelessly in love with him. 

 

Fast forward about six months.  One afternoon, Charley's "mom" showed up at my door  She was distraught.  Charley's "dad" was the athletic director at a local university and had accepted a job in Fort Worth, Texas.  They were from Fort Worth and were happy to be going back home.  But, they could not take Charley. He needed a home and she asked if we would adopt him.  My immediate reaction was, "YES we will.  Of course, we will.  I LOVE him!"  But what I said was, "We already have two dogs, so I really need to talk to my husband." So I did.  My husband said, "We already have two dogs. We do not need three dogs." 

 

Missing a shoe at our house?  Just
look for Charley.  He probably has it.

I began building my case for adopting Charley.  And wearing down my husband.  He finally said that it wasn't like he was homeless.   I said, "It is exactly like he is homeless!  He IS homeless!"  When I finally mentioned that I had no idea that my sweet husband was such a hard-hearted wonder, he finally said that if they could not find Charley a home that we would take him.  So I mentioned that we had already saved Charley's life and I just didn't see how we could do that for him and not be willing to give him a home.  After all, God loves Charley and took care of him when he was in trouble,  And He used us to do it.  I might have mentioned that God had introduced us to Charley because He knew Charley was going to need a home.  On July 12th, Charley became a part of our family.  My husband walked him down to our house because I felt like they needed some bonding time. It worked.

 

When you get right down to it, I'm not so different from Charley.  I find myself out in the cold, needing help, and hoping for someone to rescue me before it is too late.  I need to be adopted.  So God steps in.  And He is always there to take care of me, give me a home, and be my Father.  I am part of the best "family" ever! 

 
And now I am off to have some "bonding" time with my Father.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! –1 John 3:1