It has been several years ago when I had a dog as part of the family. My children had a couple dogs, Tony and Stacie when they were ten, nine, seven and three. Due to extenuating circumstances the children and I lost them. Now that the children are 23, 22, 20 and 17 I get a dog. They wonder why I have never got a dog in the past 13 years. For starters, the person I love, Janet is allergic to animals that are furry. Hence, I am slightly in the dog house for getting a dog. But that is not why I am writing today.
The nose knows. It is often we forget what magical powers others posses. They may not be magical at all. They may just be blessings that others have that we do not have. We have all been blessed in different ways. We can see the blessings that come to our children based on the choices that they make. Some blessings are just part of their personality and how they approach different challenges. As we go through live we need to work with what God has blessed us with. If we are obedient, we receive greater blessings. It all seems to be as simple as one plus one. However, I can assure you that it is not always that simple. Mainly due to the fact that one does not always do what they need to do in life as it is part of making choices.
So back to the nose; on my hike up Two Trees trail yesterday I experienced something that caused me to pause and think for a moment. Stevie and I were on our way back down the trail after about four miles of hiking. We came around a bend in the trail where I could see over a large rock and Stevie could not see. There was a small rabbit about 20 yards out that bounced over the trail and into the brush. As we crossed over the spot where the rabbit crossed the trail Stevie jumped into high alerted and knew that something had been there. I knew because I had seen the rabbit. She knew because she could smell the rabbit.
I know there is a rabbit out there . . .
It brought me to the point where sometimes to have faith in something, we desire to have fairly good evidence that what we have faith in exists. Do we need to have some type of visual confirmation or can we rely on other senses to confirm our faith. I would postulate that the sense of smell confirmed to Stevie as concretely as my visual sighting of the rabbits existence on the trail. As for the thought in all of this, can I let the spirit prompt me or confirm to me things with the same knowledge as Stevie’s sense of smell can as she may not have a visual confirmation? I guess the answer to that is mixed somewhere in the balance of my faith and the blessings that I have been given. I also know that nose of an English setter is not one of my blessings. But there may be others that I have been blessed with. Only God knows.
