Biscotti is a gift to me from God. That may sound a bit dramatic, but I tell you she absolutely is a gift. Last November, I began praying and looking for a dog. The last two dogs I had just fell in my lap but this time I had to go looking for her.
Every few days, I would check websites of local rescues. I knew exactly what I wanted…a lab mix. I would only look for dogs that resembled my previous dog, Baci. I have written about her previously. She was the best dog I had ever had. We were a great pair. I was given 13 years with her, what a gift! So, when I started looking, I wanted a clone of Baci.
Every time I would find one, they would have already been adopted. After a couple months of this, I decided to open my search to other types of dogs. And that’s when one night in January, I found Twinkle. She was so cute, but she wasn’t a lab. I sent off an email and waited. The next day she was gone from the site. Just like that, poof, gone.
A week later, guess who showed back up on the rescue site? Twinkle. I decided to write again. When I pulled up my sent email, I discovered I had sent it to the wrong email address. I resent the original email to the correct address. Within a matter of minutes, I had a response from the rescue, she was still available and they would like to meet me.
I immediately called them and in less than 2 hours, I was standing in someone’s backyard meeting Twinkle. She took her time to get to know me. My belief that the dog picks you is pretty strong. Little Twinkle jumped on me, tried to lick my face, and when she heard a loud noise, ran behind my legs. It was then I knew…she picked me.
We climbed into the car and drove off to meet family. Three stops later, we were home. She was so sweet that first night. I had insisted to family that she would NOT be sleeping in my bed. While I was brushing my teeth, she jumped right in bed and waited patiently for me. And that was that, she slept in bed with me that night. Her little nose nestled into my neck all night long. My heart knew, she had found home.
It took me a few days to finally land on her name, Biscotti.
A few weeks later we were snuggling on the couch. My eyes fell on her sleeping face as I pet her neck and ears. She has the softest ears. While whispering prayers of thanksgiving to the Lord about her, He began asking me questions.
How old is she? He prompted in my spirit.
“A year and a half.”
When was she born?
“Well, let me think, that would be June 2019.”
He let that answer hang in the air for a good minute as my mind returned to June 2019. Maybe the hardest month of my life. It’s the month I got divorced and the month I realized I would not return to teaching the following school year. Two huge rejections rolled up into one month. During that time, I was reminded my identity was not wrapped up in my marital status nor in my occupation, but ONLY in Him.
You lay on this very couch then and thought your world was over. In that same low point, I was doing a new thing. I was giving life to this little blessing.
Tears began to form in my eyes like puddles after a monsoon rain in my backyard. They flowed freely as I poured out praise and thanksgiving to God.
In the months since, there have been difficulties. When those difficulties arise, He points me back to that Sunday on the couch. We only see what is in front of us. He sees what is in front of us and what He is doing behind the scenes. He is smiling as He masterfully is crafting new things for us.
At the start of 2021, He took me back to Isaiah 43:19, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
He highlighted the words, “I am doing.” I even put those words on the letter board that hangs in my kitchen before I got Biscotti. Friend, He is doing. He is doing a new thing. He is making a way where there is no way and streams in the wasteland.
He is doing.
