As a result of this incessant desire for a dog, I was constantly checking local shelters’ adoption pages, trying to find my “perfect” dog. I moved into the first house I was renting at the end of July 2014 and a week later, I came home from a trip up north to PA to find a small rough looking stray tied in the outdoor runaround pen behind my house. Upon my arrival home, I texted my landlord asking, “Who is that cute little dog out there?” Now, at the time, calling this dog “cute” was really just being nice because in reality the dog was a mess. Its grey and black fur was so long and matted all over its body that you couldn’t even tell its gender. It walked with a limp in all four paws, was unbelievably thin and malnourished, and was covered in fleas and ticks the size of a push pin. Gross.
One afternoon after skimming through page after page full of big dogs, I turned to Brittany and said, “It’s a good thing that God brought Benji right to my backdoor, because if he had been in an adoption line-up I probably never would have picked him.” And what a loss that would have been for me! If you’ve met Benji, you know that God really knew the perfect dog for me. After having this thought I wondered... how often this is true in other aspects of my life? In my life, I often have this determined idea of what my “perfect” anything would be… I know what I like and what I want, but my preferences are always warped by selfishness and human error – the wrong perfect. God, on the other hand, always knows what my true “perfect” looks like. God knows the things that will bring me all encompassing joy and fulfillment because they come from Him.
The rewards are far sweeter and more abundant.