“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. We must do the works of Him who sent Me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.”
- John 9:3-4 HCSB
I’ve done a lot of laying around in my day.
Some days I stretch out in the sun, nose pointed toward heaven, thinking I’ve got life all figured out.
Other days I curl up in the shade, concerned about the thunder I can’t see and the storms I don’t understand.
Dogs are good at watching.
We watch the mailman.
We watch the door.
We watch our humans when their shoulders slump or their eyes grow heavy.
And if you watch long enough, you start asking questions — even if you can’t bark them out loud.
One of the biggest questions we all chew on is this:
Why do things happen the way they do?
Why does a storm knock down a favorite tree?
Why does a good person get sick?
Why does a puppy get hurt before it’s had much time to run?
Why does life sometimes feel like a muddy yard instead of a green field?
Through the fence, I’ve heard a lot of folks point their finger at God when things went wrong.
I’ve also heard others whisper that maybe God was absent altogether.
A while back, I overheard my human reading from John 9 where Jesus had something to say about that kind of thinking.
Initially, it sounded like folks trying to assign blame, like my humans do when I dig up a flower bed and everyone wonders which dog did it.
In John 9:3–4, when His friends asked why a man was born blind, Jesus didn’t blame the man, and He didn’t blame the man’s parents.
Instead, He said it happened “so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
Then He reminded them that there was work to be done while it was still day.
Now, I’m just an old dog, but I know what that sounds like…
It sounds like purpose.
I’ve had days when my back ached, my legs were stiff, and I couldn’t chase like I used to.
My people could’ve said, “That poor old dog — what a shame.”
But instead, those hard days made room for gentler things:
Slower walks, softer pats, and longer talks on the porch.
In my weakness, love showed up more clear.
Jesus wasn’t saying that God causes every hurt or heartbreak.
He was saying that God can use them — shine through them — and work in them in ways we never would have chosen but desperately needed.
Sometimes the broken places become the places where light gets in.
Sometimes the dark yard becomes the stage for God’s brightest work.
Sometimes the storm clears just enough for you to see His hand more clearly than you ever did on sunny days.
And just like Jesus told His friends, there is work to do while it is still day.
That means loving your neighbor
Comforting the hurting
Serving the weary
And trusting God even when the path is muddy.
So this old dog will keep laying in the sun, trusting that whether the day brings calm or chaos, God is at work.
And when I don’t understand why things happen, I’ll remember this:
God isn’t distant in our pain.
He’s doing His work in it.
And sometimes, that’s exactly where His light shines best.
Keep the Faith… Carpe Diem
