Something Borrowed, Someone Blue

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"And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Job 1:21, ESV

For those who may be unaware, Squirrel is my world.

Shocker, right?

I live and work alone; he is many days the only interaction I have with another living being. I tell him frequently that I don't know what I did before him. I definitely cried a lot more. I am eternally grateful he is mine.

That being said, I refuse to call myself Squirrel's "owner." I don't believe that we can "own" life of any kind, even our own; it is all borrowed from God. I consider myself Squirrel's caretaker until God requests his own dog back again.

I can feel my eyes welling just typing that.

But it's true. Someday, 79 years from now when I'm already dead, God will call my boy home to Him.

We own nothing in this world. Not land, not dreams, not time, not breath. They belong to God, and they are His to lend and retract as He sees fit. My reaction to this comes down to what I think of God's character. Is He really good, perfect, and completely trustworthy; and therefore even the painful moments are used to better us and His kingdom? Or is he cruel and capricious, giving and taking just to laugh at our reaction?

I have a home and life littered with little burial crosses, marking dead hopes and expired dreams. But they were never mine to keep. We mourn losses, we grieve over death, but we do so with hope and open hands.

The Lord gives, the Lord takes away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.