We’re getting another dog! We have bought her a bowl to drink out of and a pillow to sleep on and her harness and lead are already hanging up with the others’. The anticipation levels around here are at an all time high.
She’s a tiny bundle of gorgeousness at this stage but she’s an Australian Shepherd…
and according to the memes, there may well be a spell in the months to come where she turns into some sort of a miniature tyrannosaurus rex. However, when she is done with all her teething and gotten rid of all her crazy energy, she’ll settle into the affectionate, loyal, intelligent, industrious, spunky hound she’s bound to be; at least for most of the time.
And that’s how it is for us all, isn’t it? If we are honest about things.
We might not behave like dinosaurs, but depending on the season, our age, the time of the month or how tired/hungry we are in the moment, acting like we belong in a farmyard or zoo might not be so far fetched. People can be catty, behave like monkeys or imitate sly foxes. Ostriches with their heads in the sand, old bats, stubborn mules or absolute pigs; we’ve all been there or met one. Once, I buried my face in my hands and apologised to my dad for being a real cow and his gracious reply was, “Moo.”
It’s a rare soul who can navigate the maturation process without putting a step wrong.
I’m writing, today, for the ones who feel they have messed up. This one is for anyone feeling ashamed or disappointed with where they are at. This is not the end of the story, it’s a moment in time. I hope this can be a gentle lifting of your chin so I can look into your regret-filled eyes and say, “It’s okay, you’ll do better next time, I know it.”
In the same way that I am not going to give up on my dog when she’s getting everything out of her system, we should extend a lot of grace to one another on this pilgrimage. We are all going through seasons and in some of them, we are just plain ugly. But unless the wind blows, we probably won’t stay like that for always.
I’m changing daily and so are you. Changing like a worm becoming a butterfly – still filled with all of the same substance but so much lovelier when the transforming mystery has spun like a cocoon around us in our vulnerable states.
Let’s be the people who stick around and cover the faults of others with spinning threads of love. Let’s turn a blind eye here and there because, often, the very things we want to call out in others need to be called out in ourselves, too.
We are who we are and at the very root of it all, we are loved and made in God’s image. When we are immature or behave badly, we really need to remember that we are on a journey. We are growing and moving forwards and one day we are going to settle down into the fullness of who we really are; who we’ve always been. And even then, when we are old and grey, we will still be old dogs learning new tricks.
Ephesians 2 v 10 “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
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