God's little reminders

I am always amazed at how God works. It is always so much more than I can ever begin to imagine and so much bigger. I mean, I know He is God, so He does big things.

What I am saying is, is He is always there loving me, even when I don't deserve it. His grace is so unchanging and so huge and it really inspires me.

Yesterday, my daughter was bit by a dog. We were out for a jog since I am doing this Couch 2 5K thing, and this house we usually pass that has this intimidating dog was where it happened. We had barely gotten past the halfway point in the gate when I saw the dog jump the fence out of the corner of my eye and suddenly she just bit down on my daughter's calf. Terrified, we both started running as this dog chased us, baring teeth and snarling.

My daughter was hysterical. She was hard to calm down and when she finally let me look at her leg, I realized it had not broken skin, but was very bruised and you could see teeth marks. I took her to the urgent care that is open on the weekends. They cleaned it and told me she would be fine (which I figured, but I wanted documented medical proof).

I was so angry all day. Just stinkin' mad. The urgent care had reported to Animal Control and the Animal Control officer and I had a couple heated conversations. We could not communicate because I was so angry that not much could be done at this point and they could not make contact with the owner of the dog. Plus, my "mommy instinct" was on high alert. I was honestly pretty cantankerous with her, shamefully. She talked me through it and I was more calm soon, but I was still not very happy.

I went to church yesterday evening and when I came home, there was a message in my voicemail. I checked it and it was the Animal Control officer. Instead of checking my email, I accidentally pushed "send" and my phone started calling her. I realized and hung up. It was nearly 9 at night and I hoped I had not disturbed her.

Well, she called me back in about 5 minuets. She re-iterated what she had said on voicemail, and for some reason mentioned she was busy trying to read the bible when I called. Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head and I realized this was a test. (Not the whole thing, but this single conversation). I suddenly felt the need to apologize to this woman for my horrible attitude earlier and we had a lovely conversation after that. I told her I was a Christian as well and told her I was sorry for my UN-christlike attitude with her earlier on the phone. She told me she forgives me. She told me she respected my apology. We carried on and then talked about breeds of Dogs and our shortcomings as humans and how God has grace. She also admitted she had. had a bad day and was a bit too short with me as well. We are all human!

I then decided to extend that grace to the owner of the dog, whom by the way was very,very sorry (and honestly mortified) his dog had bitten my daughter, and had agreed to cooperate with Animal Control and also agreed to pay for the trip to urgent care as well as build an enclosed dog run in his yard.

I am always amazed by these moments in my life. I believe they are God's little reminders that his grace is so unending for us, and he expects us to extend the same grace to others. Thanks God. I needed that yesterday.