You bring a request for your dog’s healing, and it is no small thing to see a creature suffering, for even brute beasts are part of God’s handiwork and can stir our affections. Yet consider what the very dogs teach us: they fawn upon their master even when they receive nothing, and they do not forsake him for strangers who offer them scraps. But how often do we, when God permits a trial, grow fainthearted and bark at the Father who truly loves us? You ask that the lump cease and she be healed, pray, then, and let your prayer be constant, but do not cast away your confidence if the healing tarries. Patience is the quality a teacher needs above all, and it is the same for those who wait upon God. Though you cast the net of prayer many times and seem to catch nothing, do not weary. The plow of persistent faith, sinking deep into the soul, will in time root out the hidden passions that make us cling to the things of this world as if they were our whole portion.
The Canaanite woman, when she was called a dog, did not draw back but cried, “Even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Was she asking for a beast? No, for her tormented child. What faith she showed, and the Lord marveled at it. If such humility and boldness were right for a daughter, how much more should we bring that same spirit to the sickness of our own souls? For while you grieve over a lump on your dog, do you grieve in equal measure over the great swelling of sins upon your conscience? That is the wound you have power, by grace, to treat; there you may become a healer of your own evil, not another’s. For it is a mocker’s way to smite some and profess to heal others, but the true work is to raise up what is cast down within yourself.
Should the Father remove this growth, do not be like the worthless person who gives thanks only when fed, and then straightway forgets the Giver. And should He permit it to remain, do not imitate the dog that snarls at a benefactor. The dog, even famishing, still knows his master and wags his tail; you, who have been nourished with the bread of immortality and the promise of resurrection, must hold fast the confession that Christ is your great High Priest, passed into the heavens. In every state, the recompense of reward is sure for those who do not throw away their trust. Let this small affliction lift your eyes higher, so that you do not rejoice more in a beast’s temporary health than in the eternal healing of your own heart.