Thursday, May 13: Tail-wagging happiness!

A dog is the only thing on this earth that loves you more than he loves himself.

--Josh Billings (19th-Century American humorist)

I don’t know what it was that woke me, but I sat up in bed alertly in the middle of the night. It could have been a sound, a little earthquake or a dream. Though I don’t know what woke me, I know what greeted me. Whitney, the 18-month-old black Labrador, instantly began to wag her tail, then licked my face. Her tail went thump, thump, thump, against the bed. I rubbed her belly as I put my head back on the pillow to return to dreamland, pondering the amazing gift that God gave to dogs.


How many people do you know that share their happiness with you warmly every time you see them? There is not a moment when I enter the house when Whitney is not ecstatic to see me. Her tail is powerful. Luckily, I don’t have a coffee table, for if I did, she would clear it with that perfectly-positioned sweeper! God didn’t give us wagging tails. Instead, we have smiles. Yet unlike a wagging tail, those smiles can be authentic or feigned:


27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
I will put off my sad face and wear a smile,’
28 I am afraid of all my sufferings;
I know that You will not hold me innocent.
29 If I am condemned,
Why then do I labor in vain?
Job 9:27-29


In truth, the smile that becomes a billboard on our faces should reflect our future, rather than our present condition. We live in a broken world, but we are only visitors here. Don’t let the present get in the way of the promise!


And Hannah prayed and said:
“My heart rejoices in the LORD;
My horn is exalted in the LORD.
I smile at my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.
1 Samuel 2:1


It all depends what holds your attention, what you are watching! If your eyes are focused on heaven, you won’t see the mess around you!

Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.
--Lewis Grizzard