Love Endures Forever

My favorite Saint Bernards, Brandy and Sandy, won't be visiting me at the kennel anymore.

Illness took both. Despite their 3 year age difference, both had been in excellent physical form, and their decline was mercifully quick. While I know it was tough to lose them both at the same time, it probably was a kindness that neither dog had to experience the loss of the other and the confusion and stress of it.

I still remember Sandy as a "little puppy" as she and my dog Foster have birthdays close together. When Brandy came along, it was wonderful to see Sandy mature and guard her new friend when they came to this weird kennel place.

Grief is complicated, and some people will forgo love simply to avoid the pain of loss. Is that any way to live?

We must break God's heart every day, but His love is patient and endures our mishaps as well as our devastation.

When we lose a person or a pet, we hurt and mourn. The object of our love may be gone, but the love is not. God, who is fully love, sustains all love. It endures the physical absence and the mental grieving. While we can't avoid the sadness, we rest in the assurance that in the hands of the Lord, He makes all things new. The brokenness of this world will one day make sense and will be whole.

We don't get to keep all the gifts that God sends us to enhance our life here, such as those we love. But love itself...love endures. Forever.