Before and After

I’m a dog lover and I’m very thankful God created precious little fur-friends to enjoy and love who love us right back. It’s my pleasure to share articles from National Mill Dog Rescue (NMDR ) in each issue of Christian Women’s Voice Magazine. But it sure tugs at my heart to see the “before” photos on Facebook taken of the dogs at the puppy mills; proof of precious animals suffering deplorable conditions.

I always look for the “After” pics to quickly follow – that Hallelujah moment after they’ve been rescued, fed, bathed, loved and in the arms of their “forever families.”

I can relate.

Maybe you can, too.

I often consider the state of my heart before Jesus took hold of it. Before He rescued me I looked and felt like those sad and bedraggled “before” pics. I was definitely a soul in need of cleansing and belonging, to be spiritually fed and held in the arms of my Savior. I was ragged on the inside. Closed in, stifled and miserable in my conditions with little to no vision of the future or what life might be like outside the bars that caged my soul. In my vanity and selfishness, I relied fully on my own strength, my own desires, never giving thought to a plan larger than my own.

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?"  Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." - Matthew 19:25-26

I’m so thankful for the contrast of before and after. It’s quite a journey getting from one to the other, but the rewards are unexplainable. Having the peace of Jesus in my heart and knowing that He loved me first makes each and every day a precious gift to be lived with gratitude.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,

Christ died for us. – Romans 5:8

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