Lord, Please Don’t Ever Let There Be A Mouse On My Pillow

I look out my kitchen window this morning and just laugh. I haven’t even had my first cup of coffee yet, and I am literally laughing out loud in the quietness of the early morning. You might think the humdrum life of two old retired people might be boring and predictable, but that’s just not necessarily so. There’s never a dull moment as long as Leo is nearby. Let me tell you about Leo The Giant Puppy.

We got Leo as a puppy about a year ago when she had to be rehomed. We met with her “family” and got all the basic information about her, and we all shared hugs as we left with our newest addition to our family of two. There might have been a thing or two that Leo’s first family forgot to mention to us.

I never actually realized that the furniture in our living room was arranged similar to an obstacle course – until we got Leo The Giant Puppy. Her first parents assured us that she was sweet and loving, excellent with children, and that she had a pretty calm disposition. So I guess two out of three isn’t so bad. But the calm disposition? Not by any stretch of the imagination. She is a giant ball of energy, even now after almost a year of her letting us share her new home. The first night we brought her home, hubby and I exchanged “the look”, which translated to “Oh my goodness, what have we done – she’s hyper (HYPER) – but we love her already – we’re too old to keep up with a hyper (HYPER) giant, sweet, loving, excellent with children puppy.” The instant we brought her into the house (the very instant, not an exaggeration) she leaped out of my arms and ran circles around the living room, but never touching the floor (not an exaggeration). And this went on. And on. And on. (A couple of months ago our son clocked her running at 25 MPH, and that was just a leisurely trot for her.)

So she’s hyper. We’ve learned to embrace that. Her outstanding quality is that she is sweet and very loving. I am her person, until it’s Trash Day, and then she delights in running beside hubby’s pickup to the road and back to deposit the trash. (She does NOT like to ride inside a vehicle, but that’s another story.) And I’ll just confess to you all right now that yes, we let her sleep with us. She will start out the night tunneling her way to the foot of the bed, under the covers. And almost every morning I wake up and find that I’m sharing my pillow with a snoring dog, with her face as close to mine as she can get. (If you are a fellow dog lover, I know that you totally understand this. If you are not a genuine dog lover, I can only imagine your feelings about sharing a pillow with a dog. It’s ok. I used to feel the same way. Until Leo The Giant Puppy.)

So back to this morning; this is what I found when I looked out my kitchen window: an assortment of almost new grilling tools in varying degrees of ruin (Leo’s new chew toys), a pile of feathers (poor bird), a dead mouse (recently deceased), a few rocks, a wasp nest (but no wasps), and last but not least, a flat armadillo carcass that obviously left this early life quite some time ago. (Oh, and by the way, did you know that a flat armadillo carcass kinda resembles a gator?) Leo had piled her treasures as close to the back door as she could get them, eagerly wanting me to recognize her labors of love. She had brought me the very best she could; nothing but the finest for her person. She had obviously put a lot of thought into assembling all these treasures; she had gone to great lengths to track down a mouse and a bird; she had to do some pretty acrobatic moves to get the grilling tools that hung from the hook near the ceiling of the porch; obviously she risked a lot to get the wasp nest; she treasures rocks the same way most dogs treasure a favorite ball to chase.

And because I am her person and because she loves me so much, just a few weeks ago she had another surprise for me. She alerted us that she had to go outside during the night. My Stanley let her out and she was gone a little longer than usual. When she came to the door to be let back in, My Stanley didn’t pay much attention (it was 2:00 in the morning, after all) so he just opened the door. What was he thinking??? Because of ninja moves that I had no idea My Stanley possessed, he somehow got to the bedroom door before Leo The Giant Puppy; the slam woke me up. I’m so glad it was the slam that woke me up and not THE GIANT MOUSE that Leo The Giant Puppy had retrieved from the field. She was making a beeline to bring the mouse to me, her person. She was so proud. I smile as I muse over the obituary possibilities: “Old fat lady died not peacefully at all as giant puppy deposited giant mouse on sleeping lady’s pillow.”

Thank you for letting me share a few of my dog stories with you. You’re probably wondering how in the world something like this has ended up in a Christian magazine, but just hang on, I’m about to wrap it all up in a pretty little package for you.

I’ve learned a lot from Leo The Giant Puppy. She’s made me see that out of her total love for me, she keeps on bringing me her very best; I might see a disgusting flat armadillo carcass, but there is no doubt that she presented it as a gift, her labor of love. And then I wonder what God sees when I present Him with a “gift” from me, but any “gift” that I give to God is a gift that He has already given me. Do I use His gifts as they were intended? Do I even use them at all? What am I actually giving back to God? There are even times that I think we all feel, maybe, that we just don’t have anything good enough to give to God.

I was reading a commentary from a passage in Luke 23 the other day; it was the passage about the women who prepared Jesus’ body for burial after they stood at the cross and watched His crucifixion. And I’ve read this commentary several other times in the past, but this time it just resonated with me to a level unlike before. The commentary is from the Life Application Study Bible, NIV; Luke 23:55: “The Galilean women followed Joseph to the tomb, so they knew exactly where to find Jesus’ body when they returned after the Sabbath with their spices and perfumes. These women could not do “great” things for Jesus – they were not permitted to stand up before the Jewish council or the Roman governor and testify on his behalf – but they did what they could. They stayed at the cross when most of the disciples had fled, and they got ready to anoint their Lord’s body. Because of their devotion, they were the first to know about the resurrection. As believers, we may feel we can’t do much for Jesus. But we are called to take advantage of the opportunities given us doing what we can do and not worrying about what we cannot do.”

Our gifts from God may not look like much to others; in fact, they may even resemble a flat armadillo carcass to some. But our loving Father has entrusted each of us with a gift, unique to our own special calling. If we discount what God has given specially to us, I wonder how that makes Him feel. If we think we’re not good enough, I wonder how that makes Him feel. If we just throw away what we’ve been given, I wonder how that makes Him feel.

I come to you today with a crazy story about a puppy and a flat armadillo carcass, but somehow God has wrapped that up and presented it to me as my gift from Him. I can either discard it, thinking it’s not good enough, or I can do my best to use it for His glory.

What has God given you today? I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!