I have been given great reason to rejoice. In my family, our pets bring continual happiness to all of us. We have (had) several animals throughout the years that have enriched our lives and have fulfilled the measure of their creation. We currently have a cat who has quite a personality and is always enjoyable to be around. A couple of weeks ago, he was behaving strangely and went missing. Our family grew anxious for him as the days went by, and several of us, myself included, prayed for his safe return if be possible. We eventually began to believe that he had passed away in the woods that surround our house; my mother was even beginning to prepare a family memorial meeting for him. I began to pray for his return, somehow, even if he wouldn't be able to persist with us long after.
Eight days passed, and I returned home for Father's Day. The first thing my sister said to me when she saw me was "We found Smokey!" (our missing cat). She had heard him crying in the woods when she had called for him that night, as she had done for the past several nights, and was able to bring him home at 2am in the morning. He seems to be stabilizing at this time.
Losing a pet, which we know is a part of life and not the end, is never fun and was something I was dreading we would have to go through again. Had we never recovered him, we would never have had the closure that comes with interning a body. His return is one of the closest experiences I have ever had to knowing what a resurrection would be like.
I have a testimony of the power of prayer and having faith in the Lord, and waiting upon Him, to return that which was lost, even that which I though would be insignificant to Him. Once, when I had lost one of my journals, and I had prayed to find it, the exact location immediately popped into my mind and I immediately found it. Another time, while tubing in the snow at night with my family, I lost one of my keys, which I could have replaced but wouldn't have liked to. I offered a prayer to find it, told my family to keep an eye out for it, then made up my mind to enjoy my time with them, as I knew it would be almost futile scouring for it. Later, one of them spotted it in the snow under the glow of the street lights! More recently, while installing software for my undergraduate research group, I thought I had accidentally, irreversibly, deleted files that represented months of effort. I prayed that, somehow, I would be able to recover them. While scanning the output of my file-recovery software, I found out that, somehow, those files had actually been moved to an obscure folder and were perfectly intact!
I understand and accept that I may not be able to recover everything that I lose, even if I pray wholeheartedly for it, but I do know from past experiences that miracles have occurred, even in small and temporary matters, when I have prayed earnestly for help. Why He withholds some blessings, I do not always know; nevertheless I trust in His judgement.
The little things in our lives that matter to us matter to God, because, as His children, our happiness and well-being matter to Him. We read in Alma 34:24-26, "Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them. Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase. But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness."
If the safe return of the things that are important to us is important to our Heavenly Father, then how much more important is the save return of ourselves to Him?
"For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 15:24, 19:10)
I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Drew H.
