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Posted May 22, 2011
"LEFT BEHIND"
Hey everyone! Duchess Tula Belle of Oxford, Mississippi - aka Tootie - here. I know it's been a long time since I guest blogged on Grandma's blog during Christmas but I've been busy teaching Rudy how to snowboard in the Colorado mountains this winter. Remember Rudy? The red-nosed reindeer Mom and Dad dragged home from the Christmas tree lot? Well, he's still around and he's kinda grown on me like bark on tree even though he sometimes rips the ears off my sheep toy and hogs the food bowl. You'd think Mom would get tired of sewing ears back on all the time and kick Rudy to the curb but instead, she pampers him like a newborn.
But now, since the snows are melting in the mountains and all of this talk about the end of the world is floating around, I just want to say it's made me do a lot of thinking. The night before we were all supposed to be raptured, I started worrying about Rudy. He's a heathen with a lot of pagan ways and not saved. Can you imagine snowboarding down treacherous terrain and to all of a sudden see your best pal there one minute and then the next - a snowboard with no dude? Pretty creepy if you ask me!
Well anyway, I started thinking, What if, when I'm raptured, Rudy is left behind? Yeah I know! It would be pretty crazy - him eatin' all my apple organic dog treats and wandering around driving everybody else left behind nuts. At first I thought it would be nice to have a break from his low-down copycat ways. But then, you know, I decided I would really miss him. He kinda grows on ya like mold on Spam.
So, I got out Dad's Ryrie study Bible that sits on the table next to Great-Grandmother Connie's cut crystal bowl, - you know the one that holds the Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark that Uncle Marty and Aunt Christa send - and flipped through the pages with my paws looking up some of those "Day of the Lord" verses. The one in 2 Peter 3:10 was really a heads up and made me howl. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." And I got to thinking about Rudy, instead of a brick house, he's put together like a slippery elm. He would go up in flames so much faster than anybody else!
Then I turned to 1 Corinthians to the Resurrection Chapter 15. In verse 51-55 it says, "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." I know this is serious business but after reading that, I had to chuckle because back in the South, my Tennessee grandma has a saying: "When I'm raptured and get my new body, I'm hoping I get one with no sagging parts!"
I kept reading. " So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
So I prayed. "God, when you rapture me, can you please take Rudy too?"
And then it hit me. I had to have the dreaded talk. You know the salvation talk that's the hardest with low-down sinner close kin and friends? You have to be a stranger from afar before they'll believe a word you say. But you know, Rudy took it all in. At first he checked his left behind, and then his right one. But then when the whole concept started to sink into his thick wood block of a head, he was thrilled to have a new friend called Jesus that had resurrection power and could save the rest of us. And when I showed him the Apostle Paul said it and not me, his nose lit up like a red light bulb. Since Rudy can fly, it all made sense to him a lot quicker. In fact, he told a strange tale about a God-man and some angels helping him and Santa get the sleigh and reindeers unstuck on top of a roof one night so they could finish their Christmas Eve route. You know what they say, TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION.
Rudy even came up with a new rap song. Listen to him:
O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?
Ain't gettin left behind today
Cause I've changed my reindeer sinnin' ways!
Okay, he's not going to hit the world stage and get a record deal or be invited by the First Lady to the White House anytime soon, but at least when I hear a trumpet blast, I won't have to worry about Rudy getting left behind.
I wonder if there'll be apple organic dog treats in heaven?
To read more about Tootie's escapades, scroll to the bottom to check out her other blog articles archived under "Tootie Trails and Travails"