An E-mail from Suzanne

Suzanne Slilcen has one of the coolest jobs I've ever heard of. She's the Puppy Program Manager at CCI. I've been getting to know her a bit over the last few months. At the beginning of March, I received the following e-mail from her:

Hello Sally,

I am emailing to see if you and your family are ready to begin puppy raising? We have puppies available.

If you decide you would like to raise a female, we could ship her to you next week sometime.

Just so you know her name is Anna and she is black. Her birth date is January 1, 2010. She weights 13lbs and is super cute.

I look forward to speaking with you!

Suzanne Sliclen Puppy Program Manager

As soon as I opened this mail, I began to cry. Anna. Anna. Anna. What a sweet name. I thought, Isn't that a biblical name? Quickly I grabbed the nearest bible and found the prophetess Anna in Luke's gospel, chapter two.

This Anna was an ancient widow who spent most of her time at the temple fasting and praying. When Mary and Joe when to the temple to have Jesus circumcised, Anna burst in on the well-know, often-preached-about blessing from Simeon. She began to sing praises to God for this baby. And, 'spoke about the child' to all who were gathered there.

I couldn't help but think that, perhaps, in some similar ways our little black puppy, Anna would be soon telling us about Jesus in her wiggly, woolly, puppyish ways. Anna. What a beautiful name.

I read the long-awaited e-mail again. January 1, 2010, her birthday. I read it again and again. It couldn't be a coincidence, I thought, that this pup was born on the same date as our oldest child, Ben: perhaps our first word of prophecy from Anna.

A shared birthday, the voice of a prophetess. As dialed the phone to tell Suzanne, Yes! I wondered what other surprises, serendipities and messages this puppy would bring into our life.