Chicks were hatching as we arrived at my parent’s house to see the new litter of puppies. It was hard for the adults, let alone the grandchildren, to decide where to look first. Little faces crowded around my dad as he lifted the lid from the incubator. Two downy chicks wobbled around one hatchling who was still drying out. Another egg had begun to break, exposing a tiny beak.
Nala yelped from her pen just around the corner and the toddlers were reminded of the real reason for our visit. Only six days old, these roly poly butterballs were silky soft with eyes still sealed shut. A hush fell over the waiting children so that a faint whimpering was all I heard as gentle hands scooped up the five tiny bundles and deposited them onto towels on each waiting lap.
You learn something about gentleness holding new life in your hands. The mamas each helped their babies hold a pup while coaching their toddler not to drop or squeeze or pat too hard. Having a younger sibling gives Thomas and Amelia a slight advantage. They’ve heard these warnings before. They weren’t allowed to pick up the new babies and could only hold them sitting down with help. They’re still sitting but they’re holding the puppies independently. Puppies mature faster than people so by our next visit, the kids will likely be scrambling to keep their toes from being nibbled.
The Saturday the puppies came, my dad sent a video to each of my children counting off seven brand new pups. Yet another pup came later in the day and my dad found what was apparently the first, still partially covered in placenta, apart from the rest before nightfall, nine puppies in all. We started making plans for our visit. The hardest part of breeding for my dad is losing one. Somehow on the fifth morning, Nala had pushed four pups aside. They were already cold when my dad found them, any attempt to revive them futile. Thomas overheard me telling his mom they had lost four puppies. He innocently declared he would help Papa find them.
As I listened, my daughter explained that the puppies weren’t really lost. They had died during the night and Papa had to bury them. If you’re human, your heart is breaking as my dad’s did but Thomas at almost four has yet to encounter death up close and personal. He knows that Jesus died on the cross and was buried and raised to life on the third day. He’s seen pictures suited to a young child, but I could see in the look on his face a seriousness, a sadness, dawning.
Our hearts are torn and we are moved to tears by many things but we’ve become callous toward others. God created us in His image. We are deeply relational beings meant to thrive in families within community. God said it was not good for man to be alone so He fashioned a suitable companion for him. Male and female were designed to complement and to complete one another. Children are a blessing from the Lord and each generation is tasked with passing on the knowledge of God to the next. None of our relationships work as they are meant to apart from God. To choose to live without God is to choose to live without love because God is love. He defines and empowers love.
“We love Him, because He first loved us.”
1 John 4:19 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/1jn.4.19.AMPC
“We love each other because he loved us first.”
1 John 4:19 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1jn.4.19.NLT
“Our love for others is our grateful response to the love God first demonstrated to us.”
1 John 4:19 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/1jn.4.19.TPT
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.5.8.NIV
Scripture is key.
“Eternal life means to know and experience you as the only true God, and to know and experience Jesus Christ, as the Son whom you have sent.”
John 17:3 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/jhn.17.3.TPT
To know God is to know love yet so many who are desperate for love reject God. The disconnect is in the definition. Anything the world calls love that is devoid of God is something else entirely.
“Look with wonder at the depth of the Father’s marvelous love that he has lavished on us!
He has called us and made us his very own beloved children.
The reason the world doesn’t recognize who we are is that they didn’t recognize him.”
1 John 3:1 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/1jn.3.1.TPT
Are our hearts burdened for the lost? Will we, like Thomas, volunteer to help our Heavenly Father find them? Have we become so callous that we do not grieve over the very sin that held our Savior to the cross?
“When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.
Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.
Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
Ephesians 3:14-19 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.3.14-19.NLT
(You can find the pictured commentary in its entirety in the YouVersion Bible App, The Passion Translation (TPT) introduction to the letters of the apostle John.)
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