His head was too big for his body and there wasn’t enough stuffing in his neck compared to the rest of him. Dog was his name, and I carried him everywhere—even outside to the front yard.

As the story goes, the neighbor’s dog toted Dog off and my mom went around the whole neighborhood with a sobbing child, desperately trying to locate the missing stuffed animal. Finally, she rescued Dog and brought him home.

Since he was covered in slobber, my mom washed him in the washing machine. Little did she know that her four-year-old daughter was in full on meltdown mode and hovered by the washing machine in tears through the whole wash cycle.

Once he was done, my mom hung him out to dry on the clothesline. And there I stood, holding his wet paw, sucking my thumb the entire time he hung out there drying.

Out of control events do that, don’t they? Catch us off guard, leave us crying and searching, and then we find ourselves standing in the waiting zone, sucking our thumbs—holding too tightly to what we thought was lost.

These events blindside us. They catch us napping and unprepared. And often, they break us in ways we struggle to overcome.

But like my mom came to the rescue, that’s what God can do. He steps in, washes the stuffed animal, and gets it ready to be used again. We are never too far gone to be of value to our Father.

So, as the world presses in on all sides, hold tightly to Dog’s foot—or God’s hand. The hard is only here for a moment and soon, all will be dry and ready to be used again. But try not to freeze in the moment or melt into a puddle. It’s not the end of the world, but we may have to wait under the clothesline a while until Dog dries completely.