Snowflake

Several years ago in a message, I told you the story of how my dad shot my dog, Fido. I think a few of you may have heard that and thought that my Father somehow hated dogs. That is definitely not true. In fact, he’s got a real soft spot for them. When he used to live in rural Georgia, in fact, he had stray dog that showed up one day. Since the dog was snow white, he named it “Snowflake.”

I don’t know where Snowflake came from, but wherever it had lived, it must have had a tough life. The dog was afraid of its own shadow. I often thought that someone must have beaten it or always been screaming at it because it wouldn’t come near to you without cringing in terror. In fact, I never got that dog close enough to even touch it except on a couple of rare occasions.

But it wasn’t that way with dad. That dog loved Dad. I guess it was because he loved her and took such good care of her. She would follow him around wherever he went. She may have feared everyone else, but she didn’t fear Dad. Why not? Because he had poured out his love on her. That’s the way it is with us and God. We may be afraid of life. We may fear what’s happening next. Our toxic relationships with other people may have poisoned our ability to ever trust anyone else, but when we come to Christ by faith and He begins to pour His love into our hearts, we begin to open up and trust again. We begin to gain confidence that, even though others may fail us and life may let us down, we can take it because He has poured out His love in our hearts.