His big brown eyes looked up at me. The tiny, fluffy form begged to be rescued. Abandoned, by the side of the road, the puppy let out a little whimper as if asking for help. My walk on the county road was an escape from the realities of a pressured lifestyle, and now here I stood facing another bleeding heart-case. I gently scooped the little fur ball into my arms and noticed his broken right front leg.
The bone was set. He followed me everywhere. Being quite the sight didn’t curtail his puppy-ness. Due to the nature of the break, a sling was necessary for several weeks. He and I seemed to adapt easily to his three-legged walk as if it were natural.
Weeks later, carefully unmasking the pampered limb, I looked at my little friend - thinking his boundless energy would take over and he would delight in his new found freedom and stability. Not the case. He just laid there. Big brown eyes. Whimper. After much coaxing, and him refusing to budge, I glanced over at the sling in the garbage can. I thought, “This is ridiculous!”
Picking the sling up, his ears perked up. He raised his head as if to say, “I need that.” ![]()
I left the vet that day with a puppy, in a sling, determined to be three-legged for the rest of his life.
How many of us human beings do the same thing? We’ve all been hurt, disappointed, and/or abandoned in varying degrees. How many of us are staying there? We use drugs, drink, and denial to sling our wounded hearts and live that way til the day we die.
Everything in me says, “This is wrong!”
Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” In other words, get rid of the sling and walk as you were desiged by the Creator to walk! Sometimes I wonder: do I really want genuine freedom bad enough? Or is it just easier to limp along using my sling?
Lovingly written…
