Have you ever been aware of Him actually helping you?
I believe God, the Almighty God, helps me always (time) and alway (space).
I will share one event with you, which happened one summer ago.
About 9 in the morning a guy came to the door; he was all official looking with his ID hanging around his neck, and company clipboard in hand. He was from the new cable-internet-phone company which had been digging, around our town, for several weeks.
He told me that they would be in the easement part of our back yard the rest of the day. I thanked him for telling me, and I asked him if they were going to need anything from me. He said “no, just letting you know we would be there today.” As he walked away I felt a creepy check in my spirit. The guy did not look menacing, or creepy, or scary in any way, and I dismissed the feeling.
Not a minute later, a couple of big dogs were running together across the street—very rare sight in our neighbourhood. I thought “who would let their dogs run? and without a leash?” I watched them turn as if they heard someone calling them, and head toward our front yard. The dogs came right up to our front door and sat looking at me looking at them, as they panted like they had been running for a long time. I went outside to see if they had tags, but, no tags. One had a collar. I shooshed them and told them repeatedly to go home, while motioning with my hand. They just would not leave. Could they have been abandoned? I’ll never know.
It was near 90F already, so I went back inside and got a big stainless steel mixing bowl, filled it with water and took it out for the dogs to drink. They drank it clean, and sat under the red maple’s shade as if they belonged there. I refilled the bowl, and went back inside checking on the dogs every time I walked by the front window.
When they heard me coming near the door or window, they got up excitedly, wagging their tails and expected I would play with them—I thought.
Meanwhile, the cable laying guys came and went to their trucks, had their lunch, and came and went to their trucks some more. The dogs lifted their heads attentively every time one of those guys walked by in the side yard.
I was so intrigued by those dogs that I hardly got anything done, except some dusting and laundry. Those two dogs behaved as if they lived here. Every now and then, I went outside to give them more water, and they greeted me as if they knew me well. They never once sniffed my shoes, or skirt, as most dogs would do. Their behaviour was peculiar, to say the least.
When it was near the time that my husband would be driving up from work, I stayed by the door, to give him the head’s up about those dogs being there. I knew his sense of ‘protector of the wife’ would immediately rise upon seeing the dogs, so I wanted to be outside as he drove up. Sure enough, when he saw the dogs—which did not even look up when the car drove up the driveway—he frowned with concern, but quickly unknitted his brow as he saw me smiling at him. One of the dogs glanced, uninterested, at him as we came up to the door, and laid his head back down on his paws.
I told my husband the whole dog story, and when he noticed the cable-internet-phone guys in the back yard, I told him about the guy from the morning.
While hubby was freshening up I notice the dogs drinking a little water and then walking away, and soon trotting and running just as they had come in the morning.
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When hubby came back to the kitchen, noticing the dogs were not where they had been, we both wondered and speculated if the Lord had sent them to protect me from those guys. Their assignment completed, they left. Only God knows if one of those guys would have been up to no good that day, or would have thought to do me evil, if it had not been for those two huge dogs, sitting in our front yard all day. I imagined those guys would be well acquainted with guard dogs, and these two big dogs would look threatening—two of them, at that, and untethered! They could have growled, chased them, or barked…but did not. Just sat and watched.
These scriptures came to mind as I saw the dogs disappear in the distance:
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” (Ps. 91:1)
“The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.” (Nah 1:7)
Thank you, Lord!
And a close up of the cuff. Isn't it cute? Soooooo tiny.
But...I had always wanted one like this,