Our furry friends wiggle into our hearts, providing comfort, even help and protection. Every so often they save our lives.
You know the phrase, “A man’s best friend,” referring to his trusty lab, beagle, spaniel, poodle, or mutt.
We women have animals as friends, too, and enough stories to fill a Kindle. I’d like to tell you one of mine. I hope you’ll tell me one of yours.
The day a hamster saved my life
Meet Hammy. A totally unoriginal name, I know. This teddy bear hamster — long, beige fur and requisite black, beady eyes — lived in a fancy hamster house (the type with secret passageways and penthouses) next to my desk on the lowest floor of our family’s tri-level. Her mommy was Laura, my only child at the time. I was just a friend.
Way back in the summer before Laura marched into Mrs. Nelson’s Kindergarten, Hammy became more than a friend. He became our palm-sized hero. Here’s how.
One warm evening, as I wiped the kitchen counters and lost myself in thought, my spirit heard an inaudible voice say, “Check on the hamster.”
“Huh? Is this you, God?”
or am I going looney?
Then again, “Check on the hamster.”
Whoa, now I’m losing it.
I thought, “If this is God, what a weird way to get my attention!”
Seriously? God wants me to check on Hammy?
Nothing against God. Or hamsters. But I had watered the little guy and hand-fed him sunflower seeds that afternoon. I was certain he was napping.
What more did they want?
Fearing that this voice might chatter through the night unless I checked on Hammy, I tossed the rag in the sink and made my way down the seven steps to the lower level and stopped dead.
I smelled something funny: burning wire. No flames, no smoke, only the smell.
Olfactory hallucinations too? God help me.
So I called to my husband. No sense freaking out my daughter. My husband? He enjoys a good laugh. . .and a chance to be my knight in shining armor.
“Hey, Steve, come here and tell me if you smell what I smell.”
I watched his eyes as he came down the stairs. The furrowed brow told me all I needed to know. He smelled it too.
We felt heat behind the wall, the one nearest Hammy. You can guess happened next: a 911 call, a reassuring conversation with our daughter before the fire trucks arrived, and a party on the streets. Nothing brings out good neighbors on a warm summer’s eve like three shiny, red fire trucks.
The fire chief told me we would have had a full-blown fire within days if not sooner had we not called.
I believe in my heart that our house would have gone up in flames that very night while we slept if I had discounted God’s voice and failed to check on the hamster. Thank you, God. Thank you, Hammy.
By the way, Hammy was fine and the recipient of many extra sunflowers seeds of thanks. Why God used Hammy to get my attention, I don’t know. . .other than the obvious: I love my furry friends.
“Where can I go from your Spirit
Where can I flee from you presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”
Psalm 139:7,8
A Friendly Question: Has a furry (or feathered or scaled) friend comforted or helped you in some way? Please share a little bit of your story and encourage your sisters in Christ. 🙂
Ruth and Naomi — a young widow, a grieving mother — tie a knot of unparalleled friendship. Trying to gather up dreams, they hold onto each other and hope.
Pull up a chair, relax, and listen to hope sung by Nichole Nordeman and Amy Grant. 🙂 The lyrics are below.
 “I’m With You”
Love is a hurricane in a blue sky
I didn’t see it coming, never knew why
All the laughter and the dreams All the memories in between
Washed away in a steady stream
Love is a hunger; a famine in your soul
I thought I planted beauty, but it would never grow.
Now I’m on my hands and knees
trying to gather up my dreams
trying to hold on to anything
And we could shake a fist in times like this
When we don’t understand
Or we could just hold hands
You and me, me and you Where you go I’ll go too I’m with you, I’m with you Until your heart, finds a home I won’t let you feel alone I’m with you, I’m with you, with you
You do your best to build a higher wall
To keep love safe from any wrecking ball
When the dust has cleared, we will
See the house thatlove rebuilds
Guarding beauty that lives here still
It’s you and me, me and you Where you go I’ll go too I’m with you, I’m with you Until your heart, finds a home I won’t let you feel alone I’m with you, I’m with you
Who can say I’m left with nothing
When I have all of you, all of you, yeah
In the way you’ve always loved me
I remember. He does too
You and me, me and you Where you go I’ll go too I’m with you, I’m with you Until your heart, finds a home I won’t let you feel alone I’m with you, I’m with you (We’re gonna make it through)
You and me, me and you Where you go I’ll go too I’m with you, I’m with you Until your heart, finds a home I won’t let you feel alone I’m with you, I’m with you
Welcome to 31 Days of Friendship {Day 2}: The differences between men’s and women’s friendships begin in the brain. . .and guys, well, use half a brain.
Guys have half a brain. . .in regular use. You suspected such, didn’t you?
Imagine a walnut. When opened you see a right side and a left side. While guys have both sides of a brain — indeed, your son, your teen, your man packs gray matter — they use the left half primarily. The right half? Pretty much dormant. Lights out.
OK, not exactly. In fact some guys — typically left-handed and/or artistic — use both sides of their brains.
In her classic book The Friendships of Women, Dee Brestin quotes a bright 12-year-old girl on the friendship differences of men and women; “If I want to have a conversation that’s not totally one-sided, I talk to girls — because girls know how to listen and respond. That’s an important quality and boys don’t have it.”
Ouch? What do you think? Am I being unfair? Or just telling it like it is?
Research has suggested that each hemisphere of the brain has its own distinctive strengths. Left-brained men excel in problem-solving and goal-setting, for instance. However, their walnuts got a chemical androgen wash before birth, damaging the communicating link between the halves. No such wash for us women.
For better or for worse, we think through both hemispheres, and this helps explain why we value friendships deep like the Pacific.
We talk.
We listen.
We hug.
We feel our friends’ pain and weep together.
“Someone’s thoughts may be as deep as the ocean, but if you are smart, you will discover them.” Proverbs 20:5 (CEV)
Psst. . .did you catch Day One of 31 Days of Friendship? Read it and meet the posse of 6. You can read day one here. 🙂
A Friendly Q: Many women with wonderful husbands or male friends say they need women friendships. What about you? What do you gain most from friendships with women? Please leave a comment if you have a moment. Thanks.
Making friends is harder than it looks. In fact, the risk of rejection stinks. Yet God designed women for friendship and he’ll bring the right ones into your life.
Why is it tough to make friends? And keep them? The usual suspect: busyness.
But could a deeper reason explain the problem with finding real friends?
Just for a moment picture yourself at age 4 or 5. All you had to do is say, “Hi, I’m Shana. What’s your name?” and — ta-da — a new friend.
Now you’re 30, 40, 50 or more, and friendship is as risky as doing a back flip off the high dive.
The operative word: Risky. And risky stinks.
Friendship Is Risky
If you reach out to a woman who seems friendly, she may reject you. If you open up and share deeply with another, she may draw back. Friendship opens the risk of wounds. It’s safer to keep your distance. A lonely distance.
I experienced loneliness when my family moved 14 years ago. I didn’t know I soul in my new hometown. Neither did my husband. It didn’t bother him. I went nuts and into action. I thought, “I know what to do. Find a friendly church and make friends. How hard could it be?”
Our furry friends wiggle into our hearts, providing comfort, even help and protection. Every so often they save our lives.
