Divine Evidence

During last half of this year I must have written over a dozen posts that I erased upon reading the final draft because they were just too dark.  They represented what was in my heart, but there has been a lot of emotion in my life this year, and much of it just isn't valuable for sharing.  It's my yoke, I need to pull the load.  As I write this particular post, I am determined to publish it regardless of how it comes out.

In my new world perspective I find myself believing that there are some perspectives on death and suffering that actually provide evidence of God's existence.  This true story has all three; suffering, death, and proof of design that I can't explain without God's existence.

Michelle and I had a rough day Friday (actually, mostly me but I managed to bring Michelle down too). At some point Saturday morning I watched the last half of 'Legally Blond' on TV.  In the final scene of the show, Reece Witherspoon gives a commencement speech, the graduating class throw their tassel laden hats in the air, and I'm suddenly transported back to the same image from the 2001 Allen high school graduation at Prestonwood auditorium.  I cry silently and then tell Michelle we should go to Springdale Arkansas and look for a distraction from our life.  We go, she does some shopping, we take in a movie at the dollar theater, and we eat a high end date style dinner at Taco Bueno.

Shortly after we got home, the psycho puppy freaks out.  He's whining, barking, and trying to squeeze into the two inch space at the bottom of our couch.  Finally, after the level of chaos became unbearable, I walked behind the couch, grabbed the back, and tilted the couch so Newbie could examine the underside and get over his obsessive compulsive madness.  As Newbie moved under the heaviest part of the couch (it's actually a hide-a-bed) the extra weight made it slip out of my hand.  Suddenly the room was filled with a pained howl that is permanently imprinted in my mind.

The next thing I know my little dog runs straight into the wall, spins wildly, crashes through a TV tray (with pictures of Mandy on it), wedges into the corner of the room for a moment, does a virtual back flip out of the corner, and then launches into the air, a brown and grey blur. 

Next, I watch it die.

In hind sight, I'm surprised that I didn't see it earlier but I believe this is because I was still juggling the couch, reacting to such unexpected chaos, and distracted by the sound of furry and crashes. 

The first time I saw it was when Newbie launched into the air.  Newbie's path through the air matching it's speed and direction.  As the ground squirrel looked back to see where the dog was, the psycho puppy landed and delivered a quick kill.

Years ago Newbie killed a big, black bird and left it in the bath tub for us.  When I told Michelle about it she was sad for the bird.   From time to time following yesterday's excitement and drama I find myself feeling a wee bit sorry for the ground squirrel...but only briefly.  My fondness for these happy little rodents is quickly overcome with thoughts of what I said to Michelle about the bird.

"God gave birds the gift of flight.  If one of them can be killed by a dog that stands 6 inches tall, the death is Gods way of saying that he needs to eliminate that particular line from the gene pool." 

This is equally if not more true for a squirrel that decides to take up residence in a couch that is the favorite sleeping place of a terrier.  This is even MORE true if the terrier is Newbie the psycho puppy. 

I have no doubt that God designed natural selection to compliment his design of our ever changing world.  Watching Newbie demonstrate that he is faster than a ground squirrel when competing on his home court was further evidence of God's divine design.