I saw God tonight

Today was a very traumatic day in the Perkinson household. Two of the neighborhood dogs got loose and started roaming the area. They started at the top of the neighborhood and worked their way down. During the course of their wanderings, they managed to kill a cat and leave it's mangled body on a nearby lawn. They ended up in our back yard.

Our back yard is home to our ten chickens. Isabella, my favorite, was one of the innocents traumatized by two ferocious beasts breaking into their coop and attacking them. By the time Jake got out there the chicken yard was a mess of blood and feathers. One chicken lay mangled on the ground while another had severe injuries to it's back. Another has it's leg broken (we think - it's hard to tell on a chicken). And worst of all, Isabella was missing! Jake thought he saw one of the dogs had take her and run.

I was angry, Jake was angry, my neighbors were angry. Animal control was called and we all stood at the top of my driveway waiting for them to arrive and bring justice.

Many thoughts ran through my head. I knew this family from school. Their son is in the same grade as Emma. How could they let their dogs do this?! I'm ashamed to admit that the neighbors and I were not nice in our commentary against these people. I wanted justice...I wanted something to be done about this!

After the dust settled, the man and woman came to our house. She had been crying and the man looked ashamed. Jake met them at the door and began talking. I listened expecting to hear prices of chickens and cost for repair to the coop. My husband began by telling them he understood they did not do this on purpose. That we still had chickens left and that he knew they were sorry. Then he did something none of us were expecting. He looked at the man and said, "I'll tell you what. Why don't we do this...(the man and his wife stiffened ready for the amount of restitution to be given) why don't we have dinner together and call it even?" The looks on their faces are something I'll never forget. The shock of what Jake said, their eyes getting bigger, the surprised tilt of their heads as if they didn't hear him right. And then the smiles. The look of pure relief and joy that came to their faces was priceless.

I'll admit, I was shocked as well. When the wife looked at me it was as if she were looking to see if this could possibly be true. Was my husband truly offering a dinner invitation? I tried not to let the shock show on my face as I quickly smiled and nodded my agreement. Dinner? Sure...that'd be great.

As I was smiling and nodding my head it hit me like a ton of bricks...my husband was a true picture of what being a Christ-follower is all about. Those people deserved to pay for the damage to our chickens and the coop. They deserved for Jake to yell at them for not keeping their dogs penned up. They deserved our anger, those chickens could've very easily been our kids...and yet Jake extended them grace. He knew they'd be hard pressed to pay for the damages. And instead of forcing justice, he chose mercy. I have never loved my husband more at that moment. My prayer is that when I start to grumble against him, God will bring that moment back to my mind. Most people, including me, would've set up a payment plan or threatened their dogs with death. Not Jake, he chose to look at the people instead of the disaster.

So...to wrap up this long winded ramble...This evening, as we pulled into our driveway from soccer practice our neighbors came tearing out of their house to tell us Isabella, the prodigal chicken had returned! She has some scratches on her and she's shaken, but I think she's gonna make it. We ended up losing only one chicken and later on this week, we're going to have dinner.... with our neighbors.