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We just lately adopted a brand new canine, a German Shepherd round two years previous. He’s a shelter canine and was beforehand in not less than two properties earlier than he landed in a shelter. From there, he went to a foster household for some time and eventually has discovered his “without end residence” with us. Our canine is a delight to us; he’s sensible, affectionate, and likes to play and snuggle. Nevertheless, he has appreciable separation anxiousness. For the primary week, he would observe me into each room and wouldn’t dangle in his personal fenced-in yard with out my being in his sight.
Now, he’s adjusting. He nonetheless doesn’t find it irresistible once I depart briefly. He can whine and look out the window till another person at residence will get him engaged in exercise. Nonetheless, he’s now way more prepared to go nap in the lounge whereas I write on the pc within the close by residence workplace or to smell round within the yard whereas I’m making dinner within the kitchen. We give him plenty of play and train, loads of cuddles, and reward him with each treats and affectionate phrases in his coaching. We would like our canine to know that we’re right here for him and love him, whether or not he sees us or not.
As we human beings undergo life, we are able to undergo one thing akin to what my canine is studying, solely in relation to God. We hopefully come to know that God is ever-present, each in instances after we really feel God’s presence in a extra engaged method and in instances when that feeling is much less current. I’ve had intervals in my life when my prayer life was crammed with appreciable comfort, reminiscent of in imaginatively praying an Ignatian contemplation. Then I’d really feel firsthand God’s love for me. Maybe it was God’s method of giving me my very own “cuddles” and “treats,” in addition to to convey me into relationship with Jesus.
At different instances in my prayer life, God’s presence is far quieter. It’s not that God is absent, however slightly extra that I’ve a relaxed and unstated sense that God is current, in every single place. Typically I simply hang around with my canine, and we don’t work together, however we mutually know the opposite is there.
Can we’ve got separation anxiousness from God? I believe so! I can recall a time once I felt a tough dryness, when the consoling sense of God’s presence disappeared, and I questioned the place God had gone. Had I finished one thing unsuitable? What was occurring? I realized that I needed to depend on religion and love God and never simply the comfort. Very like my canine, who continues to be taught that once I go away I’ve not deserted him, my time of dryness serves as a coaching lesson in studying that God is greater than the consolations. God is at all times devoted and at all times there for us. However like my pup, we’ve got to be taught to roll with the modifications, accepting that there are occasions when we’ve got plenty of consolations, instances of dryness, and instances of experiencing a permanent, silent presence of affection.
Maybe I may say that our canine, in a method, is studying from my husband and me the constancy of affection: “You’ll be my individuals, and I will likely be your canine” (with due to Jeremiah 30:22).
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