the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Daily Devotionals
Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
Back in 1973 my wife and I were ministering to the White Oak Christian Church on White Oak Road in Bath County, Kentucky. One weekend we had had an extremely large amount of rainfall and the area around the church building was flooded. We were staying with Charles and Mamie Denton (Charles has since passed on) for the afternoon that Sunday. I had decided to take a nap in the afternoon. Charles, Mamie and my wife, Becky, decided to take a ride and look at the flood waters.
He was floating on a piece of wood in an area that was flooded when the little group found him that day. They rescued him and brought him home. My wife awakened me and told me the exciting news. "We have a dog, Tom." She was thrilled. He was a little puppy who needed to be saved from the ravages of the flood. I went out to meet our new addition to the family. He was so cute and so pathetic at the same time.
I spent the rest of the afternoon picking ticks off his hide. Most of them were large and swollen with blood. The poor little guy whimpered miserably with each extraction. I would then stroke his little head and talk as calmly as I could to him. After removing all the ticks we cleaned him up really good and got him something to eat. Since he was found in a flood we decided to name him Noah. We thought that would be most appropriate.
Noah made the ride home that evening quite well. No major mishaps in the back of the car. The next day I set about to make sure that Noah would be as comfortable as possible. I got him a bowl, made him a dog house and took him to the vet for shots. We loved Noah. As Noah grew so did our love for him. Our tiny back yard there at the duplex at Kentucky Christian College was restrictive for Noah. Sadly, we gave him to a man who was looking for a dog. Last we heard, Noah was hunting coons, running the countryside and loving it. His new owner told me, "That dog was made to run the hills. It's what he does best."
"As He says in Hosea, 'I will call them my people who were not my people, and her beloved who was not beloved. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God.' " Romans 9:25, 26 We were found drifting one day. The church took us in and made us feel at home in Christ Jesus. One day soon we will be in the place that we were made to be in. One day we will do what love best; we will praise our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven.
'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' Copyright 2010 © Tom Kelley. 'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: 1) A proper credit must be given to the author at the end of each story, along with their complete bio and a link to https://www.studylight.org/ 2) 'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' content may not be arranged or "mirrored" as a competitive online service.
