Written April 7, 2010
I was reminded today of something that happened a while ago, but keeps coming to mind lately…
Last fall, our family was getting ready to leave for the day, taking things out to the car…when we noticed a large German shepherd wandering right toward our family. I immediately encouraged all the children to get in the van quickly, but the dog seemed to “know us” and came right up to us. I still was cautious and tried to keep the children at a distance from the dog. Then, I saw the man awkwardly leaning on the lamppost, two house up the street. I yelled out to him, “Is this your dog?” but he put his hands up in the air, turned around and started to walk the other way, but ended up back at the lamppost. Instantly, I felt that “warning, danger” feeling that moms know. I reached out to the dog to check for tags, but there were none, and the dog came right to me and sat at my feet! I looked up and another lady came out of her house to check the mail. I asked if she knew who this dog belonged to, but she shook her head no. Moments later the strange man, that was leaning on the lamppost, was gone.
The dog continued to stay with us. The kids ran to get him a bowl of water and a bowl of dog food. He stood right by the van and ate the entire bowl of food, and part of 2nd bowl of food, he also drank a few bowls of water. He was calm and gentle with the children, even though I tried to keep them at a distance. I called the animal shelter to see if they could come get him. After describing him to the shelter, they said that someone had just called and reported him missing, and they would send someone right out to get him. So, we put him in the yard and Jeff stayed to wait for the shelter to pick him up.
My thoughts were, that this dog may have truly been someone’s well mannered pet that wandered away, got lost, and a little hungry. Maybe our family reminded him of his family? but I think that possibly this dog was an angel sent by God to frighten us a little, make us aware of our surroundings, and also protect us from unknown danger that day. How many times do we carelessly walk to the car without looking around or even noticing the neighbor up the street getting mail? I prefer to think that he was an angel protecting us that day. The Bible does say that there are “angels unaware”. Sometimes, God allow things that may seem scary or inconvenient at the moment to prevent us from greater harm or trouble.