Kneeling with Jesus

With thoughts of intubation this morning, I took the dogs out into the sunshine to a wide open field where they ran happily quite a distance away. When I knelt to pray in the dirt, head down, tearful and afraid, suddenly there were my pups surrounding me like prayer, like angels, like Jesus Himself kneeling with me there in the wide open field of dirt.

My pastor talked about being pressed down crushed in the context of the early church. The church at Smyrna was being persecuted for their faith and as a means to get them to renounce they were laid on their backs and a large rocks were placed on their chests. Subsequent rocks were added until either the subject recanted or died from the weight. It may be a poor choice of analogies when Philip can’t breathe but I can’t help but think another stone has been placed on my chest today.

Nevertheless, I have no need to renounce or recant because my God kneels with me in the dirt and bears these rocks for and with me. And many times He does it through friends, furry and otherwise.

Anne

January 22, 2021