The Huggy Thing

Well, if you don't think I'm a bit crazy over my dogs by now...then this will make you sure of it.  Nay is afraid of thunderstorms so I bought her a thundershirt.  The idea behind it is that it applies pressure to relieve anxiety.  Now, if you've ever been around a dog that has severe storm phobia words like blood pressure, trembling, saliva, and heart attack enter your mind at some point or another.  I mean, Nay has literally ended up on top of my head when a storm passes through (and she is very unlike Zeke...Zeke hangs out like he is my siamese twin, Nay...not so much).   So with spring being here I broke down and got her this thundershirt.  See the above picture?  You can tighten it on her to apply pressure.  Steve doesn't think it works but I think it relieves it a "little".  She even gets kind of happy about it.  She calms down much quicker form a storm and I see little improvements here and there.  I think that it will not cure it, but it will help it.

My dad, who I carpool to work with, stops in the house each morning.  He loves my dogs like his own and really comes inside just to see them.  He calls Nay's thundershirt "the Huggy thing".  He says, I think the huggy thing is helping her because she's normally more nervous than this. 

I just love that description.  The huggy thing.  Doesn't it seem to have so much truth in it.  How true that a hug can relieve anxiety and fear.  How it can bring comfort when the storms of life are brewing.  (You can't tell me you didn't see that analogy coming!)

I know that there was a period in my life when I was in college that I was going through a hard time  When I would close my eyes and go to sleep I would imagine that I was curled up in the palm of God.  How safe I felt.  Though God cannot physically "hug" us right now, he does offer hugs to us in so many ways.  He's given me friends and family that hug me when I need it. He's given me promises in the Bible that hug my heart when I feel down.  I imagine, sometimes God has to tighten my huggy thing just like I tighten Nay's.  It's kind of like, you gotta be a bit uncomfortable to truly sense the comfort of God.  So what is God using as your "huggy thing"?  Is it a promise you've claimed before but allowed yourself to forget?  Is it a blessing from today that you did not recognize because it was clouded by storms and turmoil? Was it the presence of a loved one?   I am so glad for "huggy things".  I know, that every day I have to remind myself of the gifts he gives me, I have to notice the gifts because these are just small ways God hugs me.