My
great friend "Thrum", an Airedale Terrier had been killed
a few days earlier and I was grieving his death. I wrote
a letter to Yahweh asking about what I was thinking and feeling. He
had become such a part of my happiness and life that I could
not think of him as "just an animal" whose death
and life had no meaning beyond the few years that he lived. I
raised my troubled questions and received this reply by email:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Elohim Yahweh" fatherinheaven@excite.com
To: friendlyforest@inet2000.com
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2000 1:33 PM
Subject: know that I am with you
My dear Gerald,
You
have been having a difficult week and on this special day
I decided to speak to you in a more human manner.. sometimes
you confuse my voice with all the noise that seems to be
around all of you so much of the time.
I
am pleased with your response to the loss of your special animal
friend. Yes, I knew that you would lose him this way, but
I did not will it to be so. My will is never to bring death
and pain to my beloved ones. You asked yourself the question; "If
I knew this, would I have accepted Thrum?" I am pleased
that you answered in the affirmative. I knew that the richness
of the gift that I sent you when I arranged for you to give
him a home those 16 months ago would vastly exceed the suffering
you would know when you lost him last week Tuesday.
I liked
the way you wove things together as you spread his ashes
in the forest land I also have given you as a special gift;
You saw him as my gift to you, as he was, that he was my
blessing on you, as he was, and that by placing his ashes
on that land, you were letting me and Thrum bless that land
and make it a holy place. You know this, God says, that land
has always been a holy place.. all of my creation is holy,
and it is nice to have you humans recognize it from time
to time. I, God says, chuckled as I gave you the idea to
spread the ashes on the very spots that un-neutered male
dog marked with his urine. You liked that idea too. I know
you did. It was just so appropriate and it was also so appropriate
to the character of that dog.
I repeat,
God says, that I did not will the death of your beloved friend
on Tuesday night, but I did use my Spirit to encourage all
of you to consider how my Son is present to all of you. You
talked with each other about church. Call it what you will,
I call it the reality of my presence with you. I call it
my love for you. I call it my Son with you, and I call it
my Spirit in you.
I am
most pleased, God says, that what I had all of you consider
that evening, you had a chance to experience in such a wonderful
way that evening and during the rest of the week. Your friends
do love you Gerald. They know my love and they desired to
share it with you. I encouraged them to do so by the power
of my spirit in each of them. Wasn't it wonderful how each
cooperated with my spirit and each came up with his or her
own way of expressing that love? The prayers of those who
did not speak to you directly were loud in my ears, God says,
and I used the power of their response to drive the others
to more direct contacts with you. I am pleased, God says,
that you were able to experience this demonstration of my
grace working in your little community. Be sure that you
let them know how important this has been for you. That is
one of the best ways, God says, that I know to encourage
them to do this again and again.
And
now to speak to you about your friend Thrum. I know his death
has raised questions in your mind. While you are not ready
to understand the full wonder of my love and the full wonder
of my creation made through that love, I will tell you something
that may bring you some comfort. I want to tell you, God
says, that when I give my love I give some of my life. My
life is eternal and never ending. My life is wondrous beyond
all human comprehension. Every living thing that I have ever
made, and yes Gerald,
that includes you and it includes Thrum, every living thing shares
a little bit of my life, and my life never ends. The life that each
of my creatures shares changes in time before it comes back to me in
eternity. And when each part of my created life returns to me in my
eternity, I bring it to the fullness to which I designed it in my creative
act.
Do
you understand any of that Gerald? You may come to understand
me more fully as time goes on and you come to know the vastness
and the infinity of my love and the vastness and infinity
of my love poured out in creation and most fully in the coming
of my Son. The more you come to appreciate this, God says,
the more you will know that you can trust that my goodness
is great and includes your friend Thrum too. Is that enough
for you at this time? Are you ready to trust in the completeness
of my love for you and for all of my creation?
Relax
in my support for you, and trust me to be with you as you
move forward. And, God says, you will smile and laugh again.
That is one of my promises to you.
As
always, I AM WHO AM