Think of being trapped in a garbage truck! Half buried under piles of garbage, more garbage regularly dumped in, and the big compactor forcing it back, crushing the great pile ever tighter and tighter together-what a terrible way to die! Can you imagine the pain and terror of the little honey-colored dog who was thrown into just that?
Inside the big truck, half buried, helpless and injured, the little dog did the only thing possible to her: She howled!
Driving slowly down the narrow street behind the big garbage truck, Dawn began to hear noises from inside the truck. Then, as yet another load of trash poured in upon the little dog, she yelped frantically.
Dawn said to herself, “I can’t walk away from this! The way it is barking and yelping, it’s telling me it’s still alive!”
She began sounding her horn and flashing her lights to get the truck driver’s attention. At last he stopped and heard the yelps himself. The rest of his route was abandoned as he drove straight to the landfill. There the truck was carefully unloaded until the little dog’s head appeared. As they cleared more trash, the dog waited patiently until her tail was free—“then it started waving!”
Taken at once to the animal shelter, she was found to have bits of glass and tin cans between her teeth; evidently she had gnawed on anything that had the smell of food. X-rays showed further problems: a dislocated left hip, broken right hip and crushed pelvis—even a nail she had swallowed in her hopeless search for food.
Perhaps you can feel with the little dog. You may share that feeling of being trapped, of desperately needing food for your starving soul, but receiving only more empty bottles and cans, and as more and more of the same is dumped in you feel crushed broken-but still alive and crying for rescue.
There can be rescue! There is One who can save and heal and fill “the hungry soul with goodness.” How can it be? It is all a part of the good news of God’s wonderful kindness to us. Job says that God “looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He [God] will deliver his soul from...the pit, and his life shall see the light” (Job 33:27-2827He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; 28He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light. (Job 33:27‑28)).
His promise is sure: When He says, “Deliver him from...the pit: I have found a ransom,” it is based on the death on the cross of “Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all.” DELIVERED!
The little dog was delivered too, and what a change for her! Her cuts and scratches were gently washed and disinfected. With her broken hip secured with a sling, on a clean and comfortable blanket in a safe cage, she settled down happily to eating—and eating—and eating!
When the veterinarian has attended to all her hurts and injuries, she will be released to a new home where she will be loved and wanted. Never, never will she be tossed away in a dumpster again. And the person who has trusted in the Lord Jesus for this life and the one to come can be happy in his present deliverance and the great promise: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:55Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. (Hebrews 13:5)).