God and the new puppy

This is a helpless newborn puppy. Barely 30 minutes old. It can't see or hear. It needed help coming in the this world. It's a tender new life.

This is an image that helped me grasp ahold of a spiritual concept this year. The concept is being able to COMPLETELY trust love, compassion, guidance and even correction of our Heavenly Father.

As I'm tying the umbilical cord here the puppy is wiggling around like crazy. I have to be careful not to catch a leg. Plus I need to not pull away from the abdomen too hard because I could create a hernia. If I tie the cord too short I could also create a hernia. If I tie the cord too long it has a higher risk of getting infected and causing peritonitis (internal infection) or something like that. This newborn is still all slimy and slippery from being born. So it's definitely a procedure that takes great patience. The puppy's safety and well being is COMPLETELY in my hands. So that is how I saw trusting our Heavenly Father... like this puppy has to trust me. The interesting thing is this puppy has to trust me, even though it doesn't even know that it does. It's completely dependent on me. You can't get mad at the puppy for wiggling all over and making your job harder because it doesn't know better. Acting out in frustration would damage it for a lifetime, possibly even kill it. You need to be gentle, yet firm at the same time.

I see this as how God is dealing with His children. When we are surrendered to Him, He knows that we are completely dependent on Him (or we should be). He knows exactly what we need, whether we know it or not. He knows just the right mix of correction and compassion that will help grow us without permanently damaging us.