Our sweet dog Jackson decided to take a neighborhood stroll yesterday when he disappeared around 7:45 am. I had been enjoying the cool morning air while reading my Bible and left the front door open! He took the opportunity to bolt. By 8 I realized he was gone and had the boys in the van driving around the neighborhood yelling his name. I think Daniel got the hang of it around 8:30 and he started yelling something that resembled "Jac-Jac" too. I called Charles and within 30 mins he had alerted the neighborhood watch, animal control, made a Facebook post, registered him on the Lost & Pound website, and printed colored signs. Needless-to-say, we were anxious and our anxiety only grew throughout the day. I probably checked the front and back doors several times an hour just waiting for his sweet face to pop up all excited to see me! Everyone in the area was looking for him and helping to encourage us. We heard many stories of others who had lost their pets only to find them later that day or within a few days. Charles and I held it together somehow until the evening came and it started to get dark out. That's when the sadness and panic set in. We couldn't imagine our sweet dog out in the street somewhere, so we choose to believe that surely someone had picked him up and was taking care of him...We both struggled to go to bed and eventually decided to leave his bed and food on the front porch in hopes of enticing him to stay and stop roaming. We were both disappointed when the morning came and there was still no Jackson. We both set out with the same plan: continue to search, put out more flyers, and most of all pray that God would bring him home. I started thinking about things that I have lost. I have lost loved ones, toys, clothes, but never something that I cared so much about and not found it. I had never lost something of such value, not just financial value, but something of intrinsic value with which we had invested time and energy. He was part of our family. I began to get a small taste of what the Lord must feel searching for His lost sheep. It is a never ending, never giving up sort of feeling fueled by love. And oh the joy when He finds a sheep that had been lost and is now found. I experienced that joy when my friend picture texted me a pic of Jackson and said she had found him! Tears were streaming down my face as I pushed the boys in the double stroller through the park and into our driveway. I saw him for the first time in 24+ hrs, he was dirty and flea infested but he was our dog and he was HOME! Jackson was certainly a lot like us "sheep" when God finds us we are still "dirty" with sin, but thanks be to God who sent His Son to be perfectly clean on our behalf. And thanks to Trifexis flea and heartworm medication for "cleansing" Jackson from all unrightousness!
