Читать книгу Paws to Reflect for Dog Lovers - Kim McLean - Страница 14

I believe; help my unbelief!

—Mark 9:24b

I met Daisy the three-legged Dalmatian long after the trauma that caused her handicap and nearly cost her life. For the first time, when I heard her story, I realized how cruel people can be, how apathetic. I met her after someone ran over her and left her. It was also clear she had been abused. A tight chain had been around her neck for so long that it was embedded and infected. If my friend and cowriter Devon had not come along that road when she did, Daisy would have died. It was touch and go for many weeks. But she survived, and now she can run as fast on those three legs as the other dogs can. She’s an amazing story. She’s Daisy the Wonder Dog.

She’s a bit edgy, as you can imagine. Her battle scars are not only physical. When we were first getting to know each other, she had to learn how to trust me. She was comfortable enough with me, but I quickly learned to be a little extra gentle with her so she wouldn’t think I was going to hit her or punish her unfairly. Slowly she began to expect love rather than abuse from me.

She wants to believe in human kindness. When I pet her, she casts her big brown eyes up at me and makes the effort to wag her tail (which is not so easy when you are missing a hind leg), as if to say, “I believe in you, that you will be good to me. Help me even when I don’t believe.”

“I believe; help my unbelief.” Those are the words spoken to Jesus in Mark’s Gospel. Sometimes our faith and doubts live inside us at the same time, but if we love one another, faith will overcome in the end, with comfort, grace, and forgiveness. Daisy has helped my unbelief turn to faith, by her own growing faith in us.—k.m.