My Plans < God's Plans — Michelle Blan
We adopted a rescue that came with the name Star. Have you met her? Of course, the name Star just needed something more. A year and a half later, she responds to Starbeam, Beamer, Starbeam Sue, and Boom-Boom Blan – just to name a few.
And, why shouldn’t she have so many names? She has a fighting spirit unlike any other. Simply calling her Star just isn’t powerful enough.
Are you wondering why I say she is such a fighter? I thought you might. Well, Starbeam was all over the news. In fact, she was quite famous in South Florida. She was found injured on the side of the road. The woman who found her says she drove by her and thought she was just “a paper bag.” But, something told her to go back and check. Sure enough, it was a dog who had been badly hurt by a passing car.
She loaded her up in her car and took her to the vet. A few x-rays and tests later, and it was discovered that not only did Star get hit by a car, but she had been shot – there was a bullet lodged in her chest.
They were seriously looking for a home for her and, after talking it over with the family, we decided to reach out and see. Never in a million years did we actually think we would get to bring her home.
There are scars all over her body and her fears are plentiful. We don’t know where she came from or what kind of life she lived, but we have a pretty good idea that it wasn’t good. There was definitely some trauma there.
Star joined our family just in time for Thanksgiving in 2018. She is paralyzed in one of her front legs and we have since learned that she is full of cancerous mast cell tumors. In fact, that December, we were told she only had about 6 months to live.
Fast forward to today and she is no longer skin and bones (ok, maybe a little too far the other way ha!), she can walk very well on her paralyzed leg, and she is like a little ol’ bitty who is dominating, stubborn, funny, loyal, and very good at telling time.
So, why am I telling you all of this? Well, that doctor back in December 2018 told us about her prognosis and, while we haven’t been sitting here waiting for her to die (morbid, I know), we tend to get overly worried every time something happens with her. For instance, Star throws up a lot. She has gastro issues (which are, for the most part, now under control). But, for a while there, she was unable to keep food down. Tina and I were like, well, this is it. Another time, Star seemed to be a bit off in the way she was acting, a little senile of sorts. How did Tina and I respond? Oh, poor baby, I think this is it. It’s the cancer. Ya’ll these instances happen so often!
Then there was that time – just yesterday – when Star was sound asleep on our bed. Tina was trying to wake her, but she wouldn’t move. So she left the room to come tell me. Instantly my heart drops as we are both thinking… you guessed it… this is it. I opened the bedroom door and guess who was sitting up looking at me? Then, at 3:30am, this 100lb dog was trying to get down the two steps we have next to the bed. She slid on her belly all the way down and a few feet on the floor. Then, she couldn’t stand up. She couldn’t walk. What were we to do? We were both wide awake by this point and I know we were both thinking – this is it.
As I crawled back in bed all I kept thinking was, wow, this poor dog has some bad moments, a few rough patches, maybe her tummy is just upset or she is simply having an off moment. And, because we received this doc’s prognosis all those months ago, we immediately think she is dying each and every time something happens.
We all have bad moments, don’t we? We all have rough days, tough months, seasons of heartache, and times of despair. We can make lists of the troubles we have (though never forget to count your blessings.) We can talk about what we think God is doing in our lives and why bad things are happening.
We can even assume we know what is going to happen. For instance, like leaving a job interview with confidence, thinking this is it. Or, hearing the phone ring in the middle of the night, waking up and instantly thinking, this is it.
Here’s the thing. We don’t know any of it. What’s that verse about us going about life making plans thinking that we know when this is it is going to really be it? Oh yes, Proverbs 16:9 – “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.”
Honestly, we have no idea.
While you may not think your dog is dying every day, there is a good chance that there is something in your life that you think you are in control of or know or can predict. But, you can’t. We can’t. None of us measly little humans can do something so grand and magnificent. Only our Creator can do that.
So, while I am going to go snuggle with my BBQ chip lovin’, vegetable hatin’, drooling Beamer knowing that he will let me know when this is it, why not take some time to think about your life and the plans or assumptions you are making?
Until next time… ❤❤
