What is interesting to me when I get a chance to talk with these rescue people is how passionate they are about the rescue process. The term they use pretty universally for their ultimate goal for these neglected, sometimes abused and often suffering dogs is that they are in search of their "forever home".
I love that term as it explains the contrast between the typical story of the dog's life to date and the opportunity that is included in this package called a 'forever home'.
Just like these dogs-in-need, we are all in need of being rescued. Our story is not unlike some of these dogs. None of these dogs really have the ability to go-it-on-their-own. They are all in need of someone to care for them, to love them and to protect them. In the same way, the Bible says we will never be 'good enough', we all have a need to be rescued. For us, being rescued is being lifted up and out of our human condition and being placed, or rescued, in a new home. A home that is filled with unconditional love by a God that is kind and just and far greater than we are.
Ultimately, all of us will find our forever home. For many of us it will be heaven. Just like these real homes that are available for a number of dogs, heaven is a real place. Unlike what is often portrayed, the Bible doesn't describe heaven as a swing or permanent perch on some cumulus cloud in the sky. The Bible says that Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind, Paul was caught up to the third heaven and the Apostle John saw a door standing open in heaven and a throne and heavenly beings with crowns. Jesus promised before He went to the cross that He would prepare a place for us, a forever home.
For some of us our forever home may not be heaven. While it is unfortunate that all dogs are not rescued, all of us have the opportunity to find the eternal place of kindness and unconditional love. Fortunately for us, the price has been paid, we need only to believe. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
