So we got a Covid puppy.\u00a0 What were we thinking?\u00a0 The same thing that everyone else was thinking.\u00a0 This pandemic makes us do crazy things.\u00a0 Like go hiking.\u00a0 Arrange Zoom calls with long-distance family members. \u00a0Grow vegetables. \u00a0Adopt shelter dogs.<\/p>\n
The throes of the pandemic forced many of us to pursue wildly outside-our-post-modern-box activities.\u00a0 But, many of these activities were also more sustainable, life-giving, and cultivating of relationships.<\/p>\n
But then there\u2019s our Covid Canine.\u00a0 This puppy, now aged 25 months, is some mix of mutts that![\"\"](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210930_110626_original-225x300.jpg\")
roamed South-Central Indiana.\u00a0 Should anyone dare to ask why her ears appear to make up 25% of her body weight, we\u2019ve come up with a compromise to articulate her dubious heritage, by saying that she\u2019s a \u201cmutant Chihuahua.\u201d<\/p>\n
This beast (whom we dubbed \u201cBlossom\u201d\u2014it\u2019s a long story) has likewise compelled us to do things we might not normally do.\u00a0 We have re-installed baby gates no longer needed by our preschooler and toddler\u2026to prevent our 38 lb chocolate-colored Chihuahua from hunting the children\u2019s breakfast.\u00a0 We have started rooting for the squirrel who lives in our back yard (because, speaking of breakfast, the squirrel has nearly become a meal more than once).\u00a0 We have taken to going on \u201cpuppy patrol\u201d to ensure that Blossom does, indeed, \u201cdo her business\u201d when she goes outside, rather than jump our fence with an effortless vertical leap.<\/p>\n
It was on one such recent evening of puppy-watching, as our canine slowly ambled about our back lawn, that my eyes strayed from my mutt to the evening air she\u2019d compelled me to enjoy.\u00a0 Beginning to consider how pleasant the temperature was, I looked up at the sky.\u00a0 There, hanging brightly, was a nearly-full moon.\u00a0 It was beautiful. \u00a0I thought, with sudden compunction\u2026here is yet another thing I don\u2019t take time to do: look up, and see the sky.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/light-pollution-map.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The brightness of the moon is somewhat startling, because, in this light-smeared city in the center of my state, we see almost no stars.\u00a0 Only the brightest and biggest celestial objects have the luminosity to cut through the refracted confusion streaming from streetlights and apartment complexes.<\/p>\n
As I continued to ignore my puppy and stare into space, I thought, with a conviction as if I\u2019d been there at the beginning: \u201cGod put this in the sky so we would not be afraid.\u201d\u00a0 We have the sun to govern the day, but the moon to govern the night.\u00a0 Both these great lights separate the day from night, mark the seasons, the days, and the years, and illuminate the earth.\u00a0 Even through veils which cloud our vision in the darkness–this moon still illuminates the earth.\u00a0 And God says that we are good.<\/p>\n
Covid has done many things to our world\u2014but one result that I\u2019ve felt, at least at present, is that the effects of Covid have shocked me into looking at the realities around me with eyes that see.\u00a0 I\u2019m being invited to re-evaluate what I value, what chocolate-colored mutant Chihuahuas I care for, and to be humbled by God\u2019s creation.\u00a0 The world around us is certainly mundane\u2014as normal as a light hung by God in the dome of the sky.\u00a0 But, even with so much confusion crowding our vision and strangling our hearts, this lunar light still shines.\u00a0 God does not want us to fear.\u00a0 This world is God\u2019s.\u00a0 And it is still good.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This pandemic makes us do crazy things.\u00a0 Like go hiking.\u00a0 Grow vegetables. \u00a0Adopt shelter dogs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":57734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3119,3405,17],"tags":[3494,3526,99],"class_list":["post-57731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws","category-theology","category-liturgical-spirituality","tag-covid","tag-shelter-dog","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\n