Rocco comes to work with me almost every day, which is wonderful. Very early on though, I noticed that Rocco had a very strange reaction as soon as I would put him in the car.
Every single time I would put him in the car, he would drool excessively. Like not just a little bit of drool. Not drooling for a few seconds or minutes. Like buckets and buckets of drool. It’s very gross.
For dogs, drooling in the car is a sign of anxiety or of motion sickness. The vet assured me that he would probably grow out of it.
Ok, not a problem, I thought. We just need to put a blanket down.
He soaked the blanket in 30 seconds.
Ok, that’s ok, I thought. We can use the disposable pee pads. I’ll just throw them out after each trip.
And that’s what we did. It worked well for us! Every time we’d get in the car, I would make sure the entire seat was covered.
As time went on, I laughed at the doctor’s suggestion that Rocco’s drooling would some day go away. It was just so. much. drool. There was no way. Every time I put him in the car, even before it started moving, I knew that by the time I got in the driver’s seat the water would be pouring out of his mouth.
Then one day it wasn’t.
That was it. I didn’t do anything. Nothing appeared to have changed, he just wasn’t drooling. I can honestly say that it is the closest thing I’ve ever seen with my eyes that resembles a miracle.
If you’re like me, you’re surrounded by suffering. You experience it in yourself, you see it in people you love, you see it in the world around you. Suffering for us is like Rocco’s drool: it’s just a fact of life.
And then one day it won’t be. That’s heaven.
In Advent, we prepare for Jesus coming at Christmas. But we also prepare for Jesus coming at the end of time, we celebrate our hope that suffering will end and that God will reign forever and ever.
Our hope is not in vain, friends. Our suffering is not in vain. Together, we are all working out our salvation for the glory of God.
Having a dry passenger’s seat just comes extra.
Oh that makes me think of my parent's adopted Great Dane - not only did he drool excessively but he ate the TOP of the door frames if he was left alone in the house. And when he shook his head, the drool went everywhere, including on the ceiling.... Dogs. Lovely, lovely dogs. Lovely post by the way.
Another great object lesson from Rocco!