Her name is Lulu, and she is our rescue dog. Evidently she never received much love from previous owners. She spent most of her time shut up in a travel cage. Sometimes sudden movements make her cringe so she may have been beaten in her past. I do not think life was very good to Lulu. Our daughter found out that she was about to be given to the pound and convinced her then owners to let us have her. She is loved and secure in our home. We love her, the grandkids love her, and even our Golden Retriever, Lucky, has accepted her into the family.

There are great lessons to be learned from this part of the story. The world is a hard place where life does not always turn out like you hoped. You may be lonely and even abused by people. Certainly there is a lot of pain and lack of love. And Christians are in this world as those tasked by God to rescue others. To bring them into a family that loves them and cares for them. To show them what someone showed us.

But here is the rest of the story. Lulu is absolutely committed to her new family. She loves us with great exuberance. Jumping, wagging her tail, licking us joyously. She wants to stay right by us. She wants to lie in our lap, sleep at our feet, and snuggle with us. When she is outside she wants to be right by Lucky. I know why. We rescued her. We saved her. We love her. We provide for her.

That is how Christians feel about God, Jesus, and our church family. We want to be together. We love each other. We are passionately committed to each other. All we want to do is please God, follow Jesus, and stay connected in through life. All because God loved us, and Jesus saved us. Because someone cared enough to rescue us.

You can experience that kind of love also. If life is hard, and you feel lonely and unloved, please know that God does love you and Jesus died to save you. As someone who was rescued himself, I would love to talk with you about finding the love that will change your life forever. Write to me at steve@hopeforlife.org or visit our HopeForLife.org website.

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