Pastor Notes #19

{A note sent to a family whose dog had just been euthanized because of cancer.}

Dear Ts,

What pain love can bring into our lives!  Whenever we give our hearts in love, we make ourselves vulnerable to sorrow.  Yet in spite of any sorrow that comes into our lives by way of love, the richness and joy of love always outweighs the pain.

I can feel with you the pain of having C. [the dog’s name] put to sleep.  We too have been through that grief in recent years.  It is a very real and entirely honorable  sorrow.

God intended in his original design for us human beings to have mutually beneficial and richly enjoyable relationships with his other creatures.  When death pulls us apart, the natural, normal, and appropriate response is sorrow and grief.

Thanks God for the good gift he have you in your lost friend.  And hold onto God in hope.

© 2010 Gary A. Chorpenning