Cora

My dog’s name is Cora. Cora is crazy. She was named after the Spanish word corazón which means heart. Cora has way too much energy, is always dirty, and smells bad. I can’t walk past her without being jumped on. Actually, I can’t get within a 50 foot radius of her without getting jumped on. It’s becoming harder and harder for me to get away from her. When I go to take walks she follows me. When I try to keep her in the house so she can’t follow me she still finds a way back to me. When I go out a door I have to physically push her away in order to stop her from following me and then she usually fights her way through. I have to sprint to my car to make it there before she does. I practice my juke and spin moves, trying to avoid her dirty paws from making contact with my clean clothes. So, as you can tell, this isn’t the most desirable dog for someone trying to relax and enjoy the holidays. However, Jesus has been working on my heart a lot lately and has revealed to me some things through Cora. One day, after I'd spent a great deal of time trying to get her to leave me alone, I looked at her running towards me and could not stop smiling. I realized something.

Cora is God’s pursuit of my heart.

Love. When I am broken, alone, and running, God’s Love is relentlessly chasing me – telling me who I am, how much I mean to Him, and inviting me to come home.

Grace. When I am ashamed, frustrated, and hopeless, when I think that there’s no way God could look past everything I've done, am doing, or have thought about doing, God’s Grace runs to me wherever I go – letting me know that I am righteous, blameless, washed clean and delighted in.

Peace. When I am stressed, overwhelmed, and have way too much on my plate, God’s Peace follows me out the door and shows me that I am utterly restless until I rest in Him.

Wisdom. When I think I’m clean, have it all together, and am fine on my own, God’s Wisdom leaps on me before I can make the first move – showing me how desperately in need of a savior I am.

Friendship. When people let me down, God’s Friendship looks at me with those puppy dog eyes and invites me to spend time with Him – assuring me He will never leave me.

And when I think I could not be more annoyed by this stupid dog, God shows me all of this through her. God takes bad people, good people, annoying dogs, and everything in between and uses it to show just how beautiful He is. When we open up our heart, mind, spirit, life, and imagination to all God is doing He promises to accomplish immeasurably more than anything we could ask or imagine.