Wednesday Wisdom: Learning A Lesson About Fear From Pepper

Our dog, Pepper, doesn't "speak" in the usual doggy way, meaning that we can't get her to bark on command. Who am I kidding? We can't get her to not bark on command either. And yet, God used Pepper to speak to me last week.

Pepper has a fear of thunderstorms. She desperately searches for places to hide or finds someone to hold her while she shakes uncontrollably. Neither hiding nor holding provides her much comfort, but it's all she knows. And being a dog, any attempt to reason with her is useless, although I do the best I can when circumstances demand it.

One morning as I sat on the couch reading I suddenly found myself holding the shaking Pepper whose alert canine ears heard the approaching thunderstorm moments before the tell-tale bass-throated rumbles reached my inferior human ones. She laid her head on my chest, her eyes pleading with me for comfort.

"It's okay, Pepper," I soothed. "It will soon be over. I know you don't understand what's going on, but it won't be as bad as you think. And I'm here."

About that time I felt an uncomfortable stirring in my soul. I have things that I fear, too. It isn't the storms supplied by the weather that frighten me as much as the storms of life.

Just like Pepper has a master that helps her through chaotic weather I have a Master who helps me survive the upsets of my life. At the moment that I was mouthing words of consolation to my dog I felt as though my Master was saying the same thing to me, "It's okay, daughter. It will soon be over. I know you don't understand what's going on, but it won't be as bad as you think. And I'm here," as He held me near His heart and looked into my pleading eyes.

My Master understands what I don't. He knows that nothing I encounter is ever quite as bad as I think it is and He is always there to help me through any difficult situation. I'm sorry Pepper had to be frightened by another thunderstorm but glad that He used her fear to speak to me about my own.