Bo Diddley, Showing Me Grace

So, aside from the fact he enjoys chewing on his back foot and occasionally runs headlong into trees, I’m pretty sure that my dog, Bo, is a genius. In 8 week-old Golden Retriever world, where no independent object is off-limits for snacking and the bladder is about as reliable as the 2009 economy, the last thing you expect as a puppy mama is to be able to sleep through the entire night. What you do anticipate is waking up to loud wails, moans, and general miserable vocal pleadings several times during the night. But let me tell you: after night two in his new home, Bo was ready to hunker down for the evening and give our house a greater gift than he will ever know. He slept through the night.

Granted, we take certain precautions such as avoiding feeding or watering him after 7pm, and we run him ragged, wrestling and playing with him until at least 11pm when we take him out one last time. However, even other puppies for which this is true still end up needing to go out to relieve themselves in the wee hours of the morning. And this was my expectation upon getting my furry ball of joy: delirious 3am rompings in the yard, and a lack of any sort of deep sleep for months. I assumed I was gearing up for something akin to having a newborn. But no. Bo’s bowels seem to be blessing me more than I could have imagined. It’s day 5, and the last three nights have been potty-break free- including last night, when he ended up getting four helpings of dinner at 10pm (due to some slight roommate miscommunication). I couldn’t believe it when I awoke at 7:30am. “How can this be true?” I asked myself. Life is good.

The only explanation is grace. I am receiving a gift far better than I could have ever fathomed. And it is continuing to happen, in spite of all odds. What is neat about it, is I am so grateful for the night’s sleep when I awake, that my first inclination is to get my tuchus downstairs ASAP to meet my dog with joy to take him on a bladder-relieving journey outside. I am not now, nor have I ever been a morning person. As a matter of fact, I am a widely-known snooze-abuser who will eek every last minute out of a morning to sleep in. But there is nothing that could make me happier to get up and head downstairs at an early hour than a sweet lump of fuzz who has graced me with 7-8 hours of sleep when I expected more like 3. I am responding to grace given to me!

And that is the life we get to lead as Christians, although I wish it was more true of the way I interacted with the world each day. We have been offered the greatest gift of love and full life by a God who limited and sacrificed Himself that we might approach Him and live in relationship with Him. We get to live lives of response to given love. Unconditional love. Love that’s better than even 9 hours of continuous sleep. We don’t live out of obligation to religious rules- to the Law; there is no power of duty which could get me out of the snuggly comfort of my cloud-like bed before absolutely necessary. But the gratitude which flows from an unexpected and undeserved grace can move mountains (aka my warm, comfortable, sleepy self). 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because [God] first loved us.” My prayer is that this truth would ever seep into my relationships to transform the way I love and care for people. And it’s such a treat to get to see it reflect in something as simple as a relationship with a puppy. But then, I’m convinced that Bo is no ordinary puppy…