I received a card from dear friend recently who offered her condolences with my loss of my beloved dog, Leo. She had known Leo since he was 12 weeks old, and because she was also Angie our Vet tech, she knew more about his health than anyone. In her beautiful words, she ended with “you saved his life, and he saved yours”.

Those words perfectly summed up God’s blessing of Leo in my life. It was something I had realized, and the words from this person to me were a Godsend. A very much needed message from God in my time of mourning.

Before Leo, my life was meandering from my former life to my new life in Christ. God placed Leo to correct the path in my life for good. This mere dog showed me so much, and was God’s way of communicating His will directly to me. Without this correction, I don’t know where I’d be at this point, but it would probably not be serving my Lord the way He wanted.

I was an unforgiving, grudgeful, and a highly impatient person in my former life. I had recently started a book called “Forgiving Others as God forgives” when I adopted Leo. He sat through my editing session, my re-writing, and finally the finish. Leo taught me patience by this. He had lots of energy as a puppy, but knew what I was doing was very important so he waited patiently. I could only admire this trait, and slowly I became more patient as well.

Yes, Jesus Christ saved me from the eternal wrath of God on my sins of which I am eternally grateful. But He also sent Leo to me to save my life from the world, from my former life of sin as well. So the words of the card which was sent had a greater meaning than I think the person knew. God placed those words into her writing. And again, I thank Him for this!

To those going through a crisis of your own, a time of sadness, look for these things God is doing. They are there! He is there! Sometimes we will see it in the present, and sometimes it takes looking back to see what God has done. There is not one tear or moment of darkness that He does not see. He isn’t on a break, He isn’t on vacation, He is never too busy. Take comfort that God is with you! If you really think you could survive this on your own, think again. Somethings without God’s direct involvement we could NEVER recover from.