Rehoming a PetSample

Day 3: Looking Upward Toward His Glory

So if it was the “right” decision to give Laz up, where was God in the grief of my goodbye?

For over a year, I tried to rehome Laz a better way than a simple shelter drop-off, I asked and pleaded God for this. I emailed 40+ dog rescues, created five posts on adoption websites, ran a month-long newspaper ad, a social media campaign, and sent countless networking texts to friends and family. I went so far as to consider a “pet retirement home” to the tune of $400/month for the remainder of his life. That better answer, at least the way I was looking for it, never came.

We honor God when we care for His creation, and because of that, I don't believe He took the pain of saying goodbye to my dog lightly. It was not a trivial moment, nor something to be brushed aside. It was a sorrow that echoed the brokenness of this world—a reminder of the grief and loss that were never part of God's original design, but came as a result of our fall into sin.

Many forms of suffering and affliction make God a focal point—can He help me, is He there, and more importantly, what does He have to say about eternity?

As I was giving up Laz, a woman said to me, “You can feel sad, but you don’t have to feel guilty. You’re a mom first now.” Life is full of sacrifices for children and the Lord made the ultimate sacrifice for his children, us. The analogy then falls apart, as I’m comparing my former dog to the Savior of the universe, but it’s not a lost cause to dwell on the multitude of ways God uses animals to demonstrate parallels in our lives.

In the book of James, within a broader encouragement to endure trials with joy—knowing the growth they produce—we come to verse 17:“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”Among these good gifts, pets are no exception. They are given by the Lord to reveal something of His nature to us. It’s true—not every pet is the same, nor will the outcome of their time with us necessarily look like what we had envisioned. But if God has placed a pet in our life, it is not by accident. In His providence, there’s purpose in that pet for our good—and ultimately, for His glory.