I hope you all had a wonderful weekend; we certainly did.

My son, brother and cousin were all in town and we all – including Robert, my parents and I – went to our family’s property in Colmesneil, TX. East Texas. Deep in the Big Thicket? OK, in the back woods, that’s the best I can do.

Anyway, it was wonderful to all be together, swapping hilarious, childhood stories, walking in the woods and eating lots of good food. It was quite an adventure – packed with all the excitement, drama, angst, stress and worry that adventures bring.

Introducing Tasha. Tasha is my parents’ 8-pound, almost 15-year-old dog. My parents love each other deeply, they love my brother and I, their extended family and friends dearly, but I’m not sure any of the afore mentioned people hit above Tasha on their love list. My father is smitten for sure – he talks in a “special Tasha” voice to her, feeds her from his fork (true story) and lets her lick his bald head. She sleeps with them, has her own chair in the living room, just in case she doesn’t want to be attached to Dad’s hip. Tasha barks at them when she wants to eat, wants a snack and wants to go to bed, and they are at her beck and call. The only one of us they love any more than Tasha is Riley, the Beloved, and that’s a tale for another day.

All was nice and serene yesterday, after lunch – not a cloud in the sky – and we were all about to start packing to go home. Riley and my cousin needed to head back to ATX so we were planning to leave around 1pm to get Riley on the road by 3pm. When all of a sudden, we realized Tasha was gone. We knew she had run off earlier, but didn’t realize how “off” she was.

Now, in case you’re not a pet owner, here’s the problem with older dogs: they don’t hear or see well. Plus, Tasha, in all of her true glory is a bit of a hider. She actually loves to hide – under things, behind things, in things. So, even if she could hearing us yelling her name and sweet endearments to her, maybe she heard us, maybe she didn’t; maybe she heard us, but was hiding. Who knew?

So, around 12:30, the Tasha posse was formed: Dad, sat out on the porch, calling her in his “Tasha voice,” Robert walked all the way around the little lake, Paul walked down to the big lake, Bo crawled under the house, Riley walked to the gate, I walked down to the creek, shaking her treat bag. We all yelled her name as loudly and lovingly as possible, which was honestly hard for me because I had almost decided that if and when we found her perfectly fine, I might just kill her anyway.

At 1:30pm, an hour later when Riley and Bo really had to leave, Tasha was still out on her adventure. Mom was crying, Dad was staring off into space; Paul and I had decided we would stay until at least early this morning, since he didn’t have to fly out until this afternoon. So the guys left, all with concerned, sideways glances towards my parents, obviously not wanting to leave. And the posse was reduced to two.

Over the next two hours, off and on, Paul and I looked for Tasha. It was a warm spring day in East Texas, so we were sweating, getting too much sun and getting hoarse. We had walked and walked until our feet were hurting, but still no Tasha.

So, I started my usual bargaining with God. It went something like this:

“God, we have GOT to find this crazy dog! Can you just show me where she is? I mean, 1 clap of thunder for down by the big lake, 2 claps for under the house.”

to

“God, if you will just help us find this dog, I will not ask for anything for a long…hang on, sorry God, that was a lie…”

to

“God, I just want you to know how thankful I am that you are always with me. I’m glad that your faithfulness to me includes helping me find the perfect place to bury my parents, if we can’t find this dog…”

When I came up for a bargaining break, God began to speak.

“Sherra, this is what it’s like for me. This is how it feels to leave the 99 for the 1. This is how it feels to be separated from you guys, constantly in agony over you losing your way. This is how I felt, looking for Adam and Eve in the garden that day, calling for them, concerned, longing to find them.”

“You’ve all stopped everything, changed plans, delayed plans, to find Tasha; you worry for her, lost in a confusing forest, possibly prey for wild animals – so much danger for a small, older dog. Can you imagine how I feel, watching my beloved people wander through their lives without Me, the only One that can truly love and protect them? You feel desperate, willing to do whatever you have to to find her. This is how I feel towards you and all the others – the ones you deem worthy and the ones you find the least worthy; the ones who love Me and the ones who don’t know me at all. It’s not about how you feel about each other or how they feel about me. It’s about the great love I have for them.”

Wow. Guys, that’s how much God loves us. How do I know? Because He loved me first, even when I didn’t even know Him.

Romans 5:8 tells us,

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

He didn’t wait until we got our acts together, for US to find HIM, for us to be good enough to earn a relationship with Him. No. Even when we didn’t even know His name, he was so desperate for a relationship with us, that He gave His ONLY Son, Jesus. And, because only blood can wipe sin out, Jesus had to die for our great sin, which was the thing keeping us separate from our God. And He did it; He loves us that much.

Now, many of you have heard me say this before, but it’s worth saying again for all you moms out there: I could possibly be persuaded to lay my life down for some of you, or at least beat some people up for some of you, but, sorry, you’re not getting my kid. I have an only begotten son, too, and I just love him too much to let him die for you. Plus, unlike God, I can’t recreate him, so there’s that. But God did give His Son for us and He’d do it again. For you, for me, for humankind. It’s a love no human form will ever come close to modeling.

So, if you’re out there, reading this, and either don’t know Him or are questioning God’s love for you, like I have many times, please be persuaded that God does love you, He longs for you, He believes in you and He has a fantastic plan for your life. If you have any questions about God, please drop me a comment, I’d be happy to chat .

Well, as you can see in the photo, Tasha, after her 3+-hour adventure, just showed up at the cabin door. Her entire lower body was wet, covered in mud and grass. Here you see Paul giving her a bath in the kitchen sink, but what you don’t see is my mom, standing close, tears of joy streaming down her face, my dad’s head bowed in a prayer of thanksgiving to a God that cares about every little detail of our lives, and me – trying my best to nonchalantly get my hands around her scrawny neck.