My daughter had just returned from school. After a few minutes, I heard her voice calling plaintively up the stairs: “Where’s the dog? I looked everywhere, but I can’t find Kallie. She’s not in the house.”
My first thought was that I had forgotten to let the dog in from the backyard. How long had she been out there, suffering in the cold? I really couldn’t remember. But now our beloved dog had gone missing, and I was to blame!
I raced out to the backyard. Just as I feared, there was no sign of Kallie. No Kallie in the front yard, either, and no Kallie racing happily toward me as I desperately shouted her name. I ran back inside and grabbed my coat, intending to drive around the neighborhood, shouting her name. I didn’t care what the neighbors thought. I knew the girls would never forgive me if anything happened to their dog. “Please, God, help me get Kallie back,” I prayed.
Wait a minute, I thought. Shouldn’t I look for tracks in the snow to tell me which way she had headed when she exited the backyard? I looked on either side of the car and up and down the driveway but found nothing, not a single paw print. That was strange. If Kallie wasn’t in the backyard and if she hadn’t been through the front yard, where was she? Then it hit me! She was exactly where I had left her after making a quick trip to the bank.
In the car!
While I had been desperately calling her name, scanning the driveway for paw prints, Kallie had been staring out at me from the backseat of the car, no doubt wondering what all the fuss was about.
Ah, forgetfulness. It should be my middle name. And speaking of forgetfulness, how much more peaceful would our lives be if we could remember that no matter where we are or what we are going through, God will never forget us?
