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Does It Come In Grape?

By Guy K. Henry

www.guyhenry.com

My watch beeped. Another hour had gone by. It was time for the ‘unpleasant job’. I knew it. My dog, Peanut, knew it too. I went in search for my little buddy. After a short while I found her, hiding under the couch. I dragged her out and brought her to a chair.

Peanut clamped her teeth tightly closed.

“Oh no you don’t missy!” I said as I wiggled my left index finger between her jaws.

Peanut’s eyes tilted towards me as if to say, “I am going to bite that finger if you don’t take it out right now!”

“You had better not,” I warned as I felt her start to slowly squeeze my finger with her sharp teeth. It hurt a bit, but I kept my finger just where it was. “We have got to do this,” I told her.

Peanut did not understand. All that she knew was that her best friend, me, had recently taken to wrestling with her, and she didn’t like it.

I pressed her head against me with my right arm to keep her from wiggling away. This caused her back legs to start kicking. I have only two arms, so I had to ignore the caboose end and just squeezed her head harder to me.

Peanut’s eyes asked me a new question. “Why are you doing this to me? Don’t you still love me?”

“Oh, I do love you Peanut,” I answered.

Peanut’s eyes then followed my right hand as I picked up the first oral syringe filled with brown liquid. She started to whimper.

I turned the finger that was wedged between her teeth so her jaw would open up a little wider. Then I brought the tip of the syringe and placed it between her front teeth. Peanut did her best to fight me and break free. I was determined that she would stay right where she was until the job was done.

I stretched my right thumb to the end of the syringe and slowly pressed the plunger down. Peanut started wildly whipping her tongue. She was trying her very best to push the wretched liquid away.

I knew from experience that if I squirt the liquid slowly enough she would swallow it. If I was too quick, it would spill out the side of her mouth, and I did not want that.

The black stopper moved down the syringe. 10, 9, 8, 7…

“Were almost done, “ I calmly told her.

Finally she swallowed the first ten milliliters of nasty brown liquid. Without stopping I picked up the second syringe. Peanut had stopped fighting by now.

I pressed in the second dose just as fast as she could swallow it. Finally there was no more brown liquid. I removed my finger out from between her teeth.

Then I tried to comfort her by rubbing her neck and back. Instead of allowing me to massage her, she slinked off the chair and dashed under the couch for another hour.

I disliked the job of giving her that disgusting brown juice. It hurt me that she wanted nothing to do with me when we were done.

There was only one reason that I fought with her every hour on the hour. You see, somehow she had caught a bad stomach flu. I took her to the local veterinarian. It was the doctor’s words that echoed in my head every time I measured out the brown medicine. He said, “She will be able to live off of this until she can eat and drink on her own.” Those words hit me hard.

He explained that while she was sick she wouldn’t take in the essential nutrients she needed to live. Without it, she’d quickly die. Because I love little Peanut so very much, I give her the medicine every hour. I know that she will never understand why I do it. I know she will always fight me. But my love for her is beyond measure. I won’t relent until she has every drop of her medicine. I will fight with her every hour until she recovers because I love her.

Contrary to what some people think, God takes no delight in our troubles. It must grieve Him to see us go through the painful things He knows we must.

Consider the Israelites. These were God’s beloved chosen people. Yet through most of the Old Testament they repeatedly forsook Him and relied on the idols of their neighbors for strength and guidance. Over and over again God had to deliver them as captives to their enemies so that they’d see their need to cling to Him. Even though by disowning God they deserved to be abandoned by Him, God sought to bring them back. I can only imagine that God’s heart was broken each time He saw His children being led away from their homes in chains. God allowed it because He knew that there was no other way that they’d repent from their false gods. Eventually they got it. After they were released from Babylon we never find Israel giving place to false gods and idols.

When hardship comes into a Christian’s life, we can know that it is always for a purpose. Often it seems that we are in a place where we can’t see the reason for the trial.

How we handle bad times depends on how well we remember that God’s word says: “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good:” (Psalms 106:1). That’s right God is good! Let us never forget it. If we are in the middle of something bad, there must be no other way for God to accomplish His good purpose in our life, or in someone else’s life. Bad things are certain to happen to the Christian, but the following scripture governs even those things:

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”  Romans 8:28

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