A Beautiful Mess

//February 27, 2022// Beautiful mess //

With all the snow, ice, and cold in Oklahoma, we have had to bring our dogs onto the back enclosed patio. This is challenging because it has been below 30 degrees for several days straight. Every couple hours I’ll run the dogs out and let them do their business and then it’s back on the small patio.

Most of the times, they can walk free, but if they get crazy or want to tear things up, I put them in their crates. I bought nice pads, blankets, and even a heater for them. You’d think they’d be happy to be warm and close.

Well…not exactly. They get bored, restless, anxious, and wreck less. What can we mess up? What can we play with? What can we destroy?

I walked out this morning and Harlei Beretta (yes, that is the name of our Shepherd-Perennes mix), had torn her sleeping mat open and pulled most of the foam out and was enjoying the mess. To her it was like, “look what I’ve created! Isn’t it beautiful?”

This is why we can’t buy you nice things! I got my trash bag together and gathered all the bed foam, scraps, and shreds of bedding. As I was picking up all the foam and torn pieces I wondered if that’s what God does with us – like, we are the mat, the dog is life. We’ve been torn to pieces.

Here’s what I mean. Life can wreak havoc on us. We get beat down, we get beat up, we get torn apart, we get abused. Some of this is our own doing and some of it is just life. At times we look at the mess around us, we often wonder if anything beautiful could come from this?

In Romans, Paul tells us that “all things work together for good to those that love God.” And we see since the beginning of time, we can trust Him even when we don’t understand.

Our life is a beautiful mess.

“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-12

We may not feel like it, but we are never too far from His presence and purpose in our lives. He will accomplish the good work He has started.

Our prayer during this journey with Kristi is that God will do something new. That He will take all the torn and broken parts and use them for His purpose. We pray that our lives will result in life for others.

Ray Rhoton

#warriorqueen

#jointhefight

#kristiswar