From the Inside Out

My step-daughter's dog, Harley, lives with me and my husband.  He is the sweetest little thing you will ever meet.  As far as dogs go, he has almost the perfect life.  He is doted on constantly.  When we are home, there is almost always someone loving on him or playing with him.  During the day when he is alone he has free reign of the house to eat, nap, play, and sit on the back of the chair by the back door to soak up the sun and show the outside dogs who is king of the house.  I think I have seen a sly grin come across his face as he looks out and they look in.  If dogs are allowed where we are going I almost always take him with us.  He has even been to the Royal Gorge.  Now how many dogs can say that? 

He hasn't always had it so good though.  My husband and his daughter rescued him from the pound.  Though we are not quite sure how he got there, it couldn't have been an easy journey being thrown in a place with dogs waaaaayyyyyy bigger than he was.  He kept escaping out of the dog cages through the food bowls so they had to put him in the kitty cages. How's that on a dog's ego? 

Later he ended up at my in-laws house where he was repeatedly attacked by their Yorkie, Daisy.  When he came to live with us he didn't have any outward sores or scars from Daisy.  But one day as he lay on my lap, much like today, and I was petting him, I noticed a lump on his side.  I called the vet the next day and they got him right in.  He had a wound that had healed on the outside but on the inside was completely infected and getting worse every day that it was not being properly taken care of.  They sliced it open.  Before I even knew what was going on, they had him shaved and sliced it open.  The doctor said for it to ever get better it had to heal from the inside out.  We were not to cover it at all!  It looked HORRIBLE!!!  It looked like it needed several stitches.  We cleaned it twice a day and gave him his medicine. Today, there is not even a scar and all his hair has grown back on that spot.

For some reason that scenario has played over and over in my mind for the past few weeks.  It makes me wonder if God is telling me that I have wounds that were not healed from the inside out.  Wounds that I tried to cover up and now there is an infection growing within my soul, getting worse every day.  Maybe words hurtful words or actions I have not forgiven? Maybe sins I have not yet confessed?  Whatever it is that He is trying to tell me, I am listening.  I think that's part of this blog journey.  Letting what's on the inside out.  Cleaning out the wounds, even some that I have forgotten are there, and letting them heal.

From the outside Harley looked fine.  But once we were able to see what was on the inside and let it heal properly he could be healed completely, not just on the surface.

That's the same thing God can do for us, no matter how bad our past.  No matter how deep the wound.  "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." Psalm 147:3