What Zoey's Bath Taught Me About God.

For over a year now I've been writing a journal to my future husband (yeah yeah insert Christian joke here and then shut up), and the day I adopted Zoey (my dog)  I wrote, "Today, Zoey adopted ME". She did. From the beginning I've paralleled Zoey and myself (hold the dog jokes), how she was rescued and how I was rescued. But even further than Zoey, I've believed for a long time that God can show a lot of Himself and His character through animals if we'll just pay attention. 

One blatantly obvious way the Creator teaches me about himself through her is her unfailing enthusiasm every time I walk through the door; I took the trash out the other day (a few steps from the door) and yet when I came back into the house, I swore her tail was going to wag right off her body. I'd say that I THINK that's how the Father thinks of us, or that I BELIEVE that's how the Father thinks of us but honestly I KNOW that's how the Father is every time we come to Him. 

But tonight I was reminded of a much more sobering truth about the Creator, that He sits in the yuck with us. Let me elaborate: 
When you adopt an animal, for a long time it can be hard to predict how they will act in certain situations especially if you're unsure of their background. Our family dog Ginger for instance can tend to snap at any moment that you spend close to her face or trying to playfully pry a toy from her mouth. 

Zoey is no different, I'm constantly cautious about how she'll react during baths or playfully tugging at toys in her mouth. But one thing I've discovered, one thing I'm POSITIVE of....she is TERRIFIED of the hair dryer. Terrified. I could be drying my own hair and she runs to the farthest portion of the house.  

Well this is inconvenient because she has a great deal of fur and she has the potential to be fluffy but she only really reaches her greatest potential of fluffy-ness after she has been blown-dry. 

See the conundrum? 

Well tonight, after continuously delaying her bath in order to avoid the WWE match I'd face with her, I strapped on my big girl panties and bathed her. 

Oh the bath went fine, I mean what looked like her compliance to me was really her defeat but nevertheless she was still. But let's remember the bath isn't the problem, it's the drying....I suppose I could let her air-dry but that would result a hurricane of her hair fibers and little deposits of her water drippings through-out the house. So, I must blow-dry. 

I tried to approach it with slowly approaching with the blow dryer, then I tried chasing with the blow dryer and finally attempted the capture-and-blow-dry method. All this was while I tried to not get soaked in the furry-puddle that was my bathroom floor. 

And then, in a moment of desperation, I tried something I didn't ever see myself doing, (I'm slightly germ-a-phobic, not a lot, just a little)  I sat on the floor. I sat on the floor. I SAT ON A WET, DIRTY, FURRY FLOOR and I held Zoey. At first she resisted, but once I started to hold her lovingly and pet her as I dried her, she not only calmed down but she relaxed and let me dry her completely. 

I sat on that wet floor and held her and became a little emotional as I got a vision of Christ; He holds us in the yuck. He holds me when it's ugly and yucky and hard. He gets down in the yuck with me. He approaches me in an individual way. 

Lately I've felt emotional about a few things as I've grown through some things and it's moving to think of the Savior of the world holding me in the midst of my snotty-weeping-fests. 

He hold you in the yuck. He literally cradles you when it's gross and approaches you in an individual way. 

I think that's what Zephaniah 3:17 is all about: 

"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with His singing"

I not only can't get over but I also can't express enough this simple statement:

He holds you in the yuck. 

He holds you.