FRIDAYS WITH FRANKY! A Reflection of Friday

Hi Everyone!   It’s me, Franky, the WeHaKee camp dog and I’m happy to see you today!   Today is Good Friday, a day that is considered by many of us to be one of the bleakest days in the Christian faith – the day that Christ was put to death on the cross.   Good Friday is also a day that many of us reflect on the metaphorical crosses in our lives… the burdens in our lives that may seem insurmountable.

Good Friday is also a day that many of us reflect
on the metaphorical crosses in our lives…
the burdens in our lives that may seem insurmountable.

It was on a Good Friday that a glimmer of hope entered into my life, but it didn’t seem like that at first.   That Good Friday began like many other days prior to that. But, let me back up and tell you a little of my life before that day. 

Prior to that, I lived in a house with 15 other dogs – may sound like the high life for a dog, but it was not so great. I had to struggle with the other dogs to get enough food and water each day.   And our owner didn’t seem to have much time or interest in any of us, particularly me.

Eventually, some people from the local animal shelter came by and took a few of us away.   A great day, right? Nah… not so much.  I then got to spend my days in a large kennel with six other dogs, including two insanely noisy and hyper beagles.   They barked at anything and everything and all the time.  Now I only had to struggle for food & water with just five other dogs, but it wasn’t any picnic!

Well, Good Friday rolled around and the day started noisy as usual.  But nobody came into work that day, except for the volunteer who fed us, filled our water dishes and picked up all the poo! It was a sunny morning and I decided to hang in the small outside dog run adjacent to our kennel. Sometime in the middle of the morning a car pulled up and out jumped two young women and what appeared to be their parents.   “There’s the one!”one of the girls yelled and one of the parents asked, “Are you sure?”.   “Yeah, I can tell by his blue eyes – just like on the website!”. They were all pointing and looking at me – naturally, I put on the most sad looking puppydog face I could muster!

They all stood around looking and pointing and muttering things to me, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying.   I just kept my sad eyes fixed on them, but soon they just left.   Oh well, just another disappointing day at the shelter. Well.. maybe not!!

Three days later, one of the shelter volunteers came down to our kennel and sure enough, he picked me up and hauled me out to the shelter office.   Soon I became face-to-face with the two parents who had stood behind the excited young women a few days earlier.   They looked at me with great excitement and said “They’re gonna love you when they get home from school today!”  What was going on?? I wasn’t sure and I was really nervous. They put me in a travel kennel in their car and we drove what seemed to be forever (25 minutes, actually!) and we arrived at a house.

That was the day the Hannah, Carina, Maggie & Bob adopted me!   It did take me a few days to adjust and realize life was going to get a whole lot better!  Even better than I could ever imagine! A couple months later, we made a long trip up north where I discovered WeHaKee Camp for Girls.   Wow!   Trees, grass, water and so much room to run!   Campers everywhere and everyone loved me here!

So, as I reflect on this Good Friday.   I see how my life was full of burdens – full of crosses to bear.   But I did my best to stay faithful and hopeful, even with those crazy, noisy beagles jumping all over the place. It would get better… and it did!  

Stay faithful, stay hopeful – with God all things are possible!

I hope on this Good Friday, each of you can examine the crosses in your life.   Some have come and gone while others seems to stick around.   Stay faithful, stay hopeful – with God all things are possible!

Thanks for being here.   May you have a wonderful and Blessed Easter and may your crosses be lifted by your faith!