Max & Maggie...a love story

It was January of 2000. A cold winter night. Very cold for Texas. Windy and blustery. I was awakened in the middle of the night by what I thought was the crying of an animal. I got up, but couldn't find anything. The next morning, however, I saw a tiny little puppy, not much bigger than my hand...crawl out from under the house, shivering and hungry. Ohhh, he was adorable. A little ball of fur and love. I warmed him and fed him and thought of how I had agreed with Luke..."no more dogs". Obviously, that was not to be. Luke was not happy about it. He said, we can only keep him til we find a home for him. I cried. I already loved him so much and had named him "Max". Luke gave in...but he wasn't happy about it. The next morning, I was taking the trash out and found another puppy. She was in a box and crying...hungry and skinny and so little. I knew immediately that she was from the same litter as Max. So sweet, she was. I fed her and made a little warm bed inside the kitty carrier I had. She was so happy when she found Max and they snuggled together. I didn't know what I would tell Luke. I prayed hard... Long story short...he allowed me to keep them. I convinced him that God had sent them. I truly believed that God, indeed, had sent them to me. He wasn't convinced of that. But he loves me and against his better judgement he let them stay because of that. My brother had given me a large check for Christmas and I used it to take them to the vet and get their shots and spay and neuter. I believed that the check had been God's provision for them. I always believed that God has sent them...I just didn't know why. But I felt it in my heart. They were so incredibly happy together. They played all day and chased each other around. They ate until their little tummies looked like round balls...and then snuggled up together in their little house....which they soon outgrew. But when they did...God supernaturally provided two big dog houses! The igloo style...nice ones! I reminded Luke that God had sent them, and He had provided for them. Luke still wasn't sure about that...but he humored me. Max grew to be a very large dog. He had a lot of German Shepherd in him and was about 110 lbs. A gentle giant, he was. Wouldn't hurt a flea. I used to call him, Max, the wonder dog. Maggie was a bit smaller and looked more like a lab...but with similar markings to Max. They were best buds. Ran all over the land and my other dog, Tessie, treated them like they were her babies. She taught them where they could go and how to hunt. She taught them a lot. They would listen to her before they would listen to me. They were two of the happiest dogs I've ever seen in my life. They developed a tail wag that looked like a helicopter spinning...I'm not kidding! That's the only way I can describe it. When they were really happy...those long thin tails would start going in a helecopter whirl...and it would always make me laugh. When they were about 3 years old, Max got his by a truck. He loved to chase the TXU guy...and that's who hit him. The man drove back to the house and told me he had run over my dog and it "didn't look good". I had just heard a teaching by Creflo Doller on guarding your words when you find yourself in a crisis. He taught that the first words out of your mouth will "steer the ship"... and if you receive bad news...you need to counter it quick...with the word of God. I stood there devestated, feeling the blood drain out of my face. I asked, "where is he?"... he said, "come on...I'll show you and I slipped my sandals on and immeditately began to say...on the way to his truck... NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST ME WILL PROSPER... the TXU guy helped me in the truck and said, "amen"... I continued to pray....outloud. GOD HAS NOT GIVEN ME A SPIRIT OF FEAR BUT OF LOVE, POWER AND A SOUND MIND!. The truck drove down the bumpy rock driveway and the TXU guy looked at me sideways and said again, "amen"... and so it went. Many verses of Scripture poured out of me as we looked for Max's body... rivers of living water... and I cared not what the TXU guy thought. It was a crisis. And I was gonna steer the ship the way I wanted it to go. And the guy kept looking at me and agreeing with amens...the whole time. We didn't find Max...and the TXU guy was surprised. So we drove back to the house and started looking in the woods... all the while I was praying... loud... and I could hear the guy "amening" from where he was... and then we found him. He was hurt and skinned up...but he was alive. I was still praying. And the TXU guy asked me what I wanted to do. I said, "can you help me get him in the back of the Jeep? And he did... and then he made a decision that almost cost him his job. He left his TXU truck in my driveway and told me to sit in the back with Max and he would drive me to town to the vet... 20 miles away. All the while I was praying... and crying... but standing firm on God's word. Halfway there...he looked at me in the rearview mirror and said, "m'am... your dog is gonna be alright. And I want you to know that I have made a decision to come back to Jesus just now"... I was too focused on Max to say any more than, "praise God"... We got there and the vet told me Max was "lucky"...that he didn't seem to have any organ damage or broken bones... he told me he was gonna need a lot of care and how I cared for him would determine the outcome. I knew that Max was not "lucky"...but that God had spared him, because the Word of the Lord says in Isaiah... "God is to us a God of deliverance, and to God the Lord belong escapes from death". The TXU guy called his wife to come get him and take him back to the truck. She called me later and said God had used this to bring him back to Jesus and she was so thankful. Max got better...and was very spoiled after that. For I had put him on a quilt in the living room and tended to him like he was a baby. Feeding him and praying over him and washing him. When he was able to go outside again, I realized his tail was broken. He couldn't do the helicopter twirl anymore... and instead would wag his whole bottom when he wanted to wag his tail....it was so cute. And then I noticed something else. Not right away...but a few months later. Maggie wasn't doing the helicopter twirl with her tail anymore either...even though she could. She never did again. Three months ago, our Max, who was 9 years old, went to heaven. He just went out into the garden in the front and layed down and passed away. I was so devestated. I couldn't stop crying. Luke told me he had a smile on his face... dogs smile, you know. They really do. They sort of part their little mouth and slightly turn their lips up...it is so precious. He smiled... and I could just see an angel stooping down to Max, asleep in the garden, and gently saying..."hey, Max...c'mom, boy... let's go"... and Max would have smiled... and done just that. Maggie took it hard. She looked for him at first and then she just wasn't herself. She got sick shortly afterward... I stood firm on the Word, because as some of you know from my former testimony...God healed her last year. She was very very sick and near death. I took her to the vet and was told she had heart worms, but that the cure might kill her. I thought about it and told the vet I was a Christian...and I believe God's Word is true. I made him stand in agreement with me that Maggie "would live...and not die...but declare the works of the Lord"... according to God's Word. He didn't want to. But he did... I told him he could agree, "by faith"... and he said, "ok"... but he was a Presbyterian...and had not seen God's Word in action like that before. I spent the next day in prayer for her. I got my guitar and sat in the floor of the hallway where she wanted to lay... and I sang hymns and songs of praise to God and commanded the sickness to leave her body. Two days later... she got up like nothing was wrong. You have to understand, that was a miracle. She was emaciated and weak and had been refusing to eat for a week. My vet did not even believe that she would live...even with the treatment. But God...healed her. She gained so much weight she was chubby. I knew she was healed. And she kept her healing for over a year. But after Max died a few months ago...she began to go downhill. I prayed as I did before. But God showed me in my spirit that it would not be the same this time. Because Maggie did not want to stay. I learned something from that. I learned that God even honors the free will of animals. He allowed her to choose if she wanted to stay...or go where Max was. Sunday, I didn't want to leave her to go to church. She was so weak and I was afraid she would die while I was gone and be all alone when it happened. I didn't voice that to anyone because I believe that life and death is in the power of the tongue...and I guarded my words. I did go to church, though, and as I stood singing praise to God...the oddest thing happened. I felt Maggie kiss me on the cheek. It was so strong that my hand went intinctively to my face to touch the spot she had just kissed... and then I had an open vision. That has only happened to me 3 or 4 times since I have been saved. It is as though you are looking a movie that is projecting on an invisible screen in front of you. I saw Maggie running with Max down a country road... and their little tails were doing that helicopter spin...and I cried out, "no...Maggie...come back!" I did...outloud... and I was glad we were singing loudly so that no one else heard me in church. And then I cried and had to leave to go to the lady's room because I couldn't stop crying. I knew that she had died... and I prayed, Father...please...I want to be with her when she goes to heaven... please let her come back." When I got home...she was still here...and I had her for one more day. She passed in my arms...last night. I had her wrapped in a blanket and laying in my arms in the very rocking chair I am sitting in now as I write this. I know that she had left with Max Sunday... but God was sparing for His daughter's crying...and gave her back to me for one more day. I am greatly comforted by that knowledge and by remembering the vision of them running down that road spinning their little tails like they used to do when they were their happiest. God gave them to me for nine years, and took them home together...almost the same time... And I finally understand why He gave them to me in the first place. Because of Maggie... my vet got to see the power of God's word in action. He saw God do a miracle... and he could not deny it. And because of Max... the TXU guy came back to Jesus, and I believe God healed his marriage based on what his sweet wife told me on the phone that day... That was their mission on earth. My Max and Maggie. That was their mission. And I was honored to be the "human" that helped them accomplish it. And when it was done...they went home. When our mission is done...we will go, too... and I fully expect see my Max and Maggie greet me with smiles and whirling tails as they say, "look mom, no gates..no fences... no vets! Nobody gets hurt...nobody dies... c'mon, mom we'll show ya round... it's great here!"