I Have a Dog in Heaven

    I have a dog in heaven. I know that dogs don’t have a soul and probably don’t belong there but God has shown me that my dog is definitely in heaven.

    It all started with Jason my youngest son. He was always bringing home stray animals. One day when I came home from work there he was with this mangy collie. I told him no way. I don’t want a dog, don’t like dogs and don’t need a dog. Jason pleaded with me and told me that “Lady” (he’d already given her a name) had been mistreated and if we didn’t take her in she’d surely die. So I succumbed to Jason’s pleadings and agreed to let “Lady” come live with us.

    I soon found out that Jason was right. She had been abused. The way we could tell was because she always stayed hidden under the kitchen table. The minute you would open the front door to let her go out she would first back up and then run as fast as she could and kind of skim the side of the door on her way out. My husband said that whomever had owned her must have kicked her each time they let her out and that was why she always backing up first.

    One day my husband was out front mowing the grass and had opened the front door for just a split second and “Lady” ran into the street and was hit by a car. Jason was devastated. He and papa put “Lady” into the car and rushed to the veterinarian’s office. They were told Lady would be okay but she needed to stay overnight so he could keep an eye on her.

    Well unfortunately the vet was wrong! Lady died during the night because of internal injuries. Jason was inconsolable and kept asking me if “Lady” had gone to heaven. Well I really didn’t know what to say. I knew that dogs didn’t have a soul and yet again I knew that God said in the new heaven and earth that the lion would lie down with the lamb. Finally someone with great wisdom said “Melody, if that dog being in heaven would be so important to Jason, don’t you think God would make sure that when Jason goes there he’ll find Lady waiting for him?” 

Yes, of course, my god is so big that he could do this. I was finally able to tell Jason that yes I believed that “Lady” was in heaven.
   

    Several months later I began to have a feeling of death all around me. I couldn’t shake it. Finally, I shared it with both of my sons. I told them that possibly God was going to take someone home, and I didn’t know who that would be. But my main concern was that if God was calling one of us that the others needed to know that one day they would see them again. Jason must have pondered this in his heart because one night he was lying next to me and said “Mom, if God takes you home first, I know that “Lady” will meet you at the gate. And if God takes me home then “Lady” and I will meet you at the gate.”

    Within a few weeks I received the phone call that all mother’s fear. An accident. Both of my sons had been in a horrible car accident and were in two different hospitals. Steven died within two hours and Jason died the next day.

    I cannot express in words all that God did for me during this time. I truly learned about the peace that passes all understanding.

    Several weeks later I was meeting with a group of women for a bible study and suddenly one of the women who was praying said that she was seeing my two sons in heaven and they were waving at me b    ut there was something strange in the picture. There was a dog with them. Now I knew – I had proof that one day Steven, Jason and “Lady” would meet me at the gate.

                                                                            MY DOG IS IN HEAVEN!

                                                                             By Melody Garcia   melgar@aol.com

                                          In Loving Memory of Jason and Steven, and of course, Lady who waits by their side.