rumiNATION

Did you know that my dog Jessie loves Jesus? Or, at the very least, she works for Him.

You see, shortly after we became aware of the fact that our three bedroom house would mainly be functioning as a one bedroom house, I converted one of the spare rooms in a reading room. This seemed to make sense as we had some extra furniture (including a comfy chair and a half that simply wasn't getting nearly enough play in the basement), a bunch of books and an empty room with a lovely paint job and new carpet.

Over the next few months, I also attempted to make it a habit to do some devotional reading in the morning. My standard routine became waking up sometime between 10-11am (isn't night work grand?), eating some breakfast while checking my various social medias and then heading back upstairs to do the aforementioned reading for a half hour or so.

As she is often wont to do, Jessie followed closely behind at each station of this morning ritual - ending up by sitting beside me on the chair and a half with her face either on my lap or wedged in my armpit. I think this was both because she loves being near me and also because the reading room has an eastward facing window that allows a wonderful sunbeam at that point in the day.

So anyway, this routine is pretty well cemented at this point in time. Except for the occassional day when some other project side tracks me and I get caught up with something else. These are the times when it becomes evident that Jessie works for Jesus. Because as I walk into the living room with a completely other agenda in mind, she walks to the landing at the bottom of the stairs, steps up with her front paws and then gives me a look that just seems to say, "Aren't you forgetting something here?" At that point I will almost always concede that, yes, I am forgetting something and we'll go upstairs to spend a few moments basking in the sun and doing some reading that will doubtlessly be more meaningful to my life than whatever random project I'd been ready to embark on before my furry conscience stepped in.

Now, I suppose if you are not a dog person - or maybe even if you are - you're probably thinking, "Well duh. Dogs are creatures of habit. If your routine were to go outside and throw baby birds into the creek she would probably expect to do that every morning as well." And I guess I couldn't necessarily argue with you on that point. Luckily, though, I don't need to debate this one. Because I just know that Jessie loves Jesus and that's all there is to it.