The "Yellow Cur"

 

One of my favorite authors is Gene Stratton Porter, and one of my favorite books by her is her novel The Magic Garden. Her stories always entertain and instruct me (she wrote about nature a lot), but this one in particular really made me think. In the story, the hero, John Guido, and the heroine, Amaryllis, had loved each other since childhood, but John Guido had been abroad studying music for many years. Now he was coming home when they were both all grown up, and anticipation was at a height. Amaryllis learned that her brother Peter was returning from college in England on the same boat that John Guido and his father were on, and she encouraged Peter to become friends with John Guido without telling him why, thinking to introduce him to her family this way. Peter took to John Guido right away and invited him to go on a boating trip the next week with him and his friends--kind of a vacation before they jumped back into work as it were. John Guido, never having been on a yacht, was excited to accept, his only concern being that he wouldn’t get to see Amaryllis as soon, but his father urged him to go, thinking it would be good for him to make friends outside of the music world.

Then disaster—the engine exploded, the boat went down off the coast of Maine, and everyone on board was lost. As soon as Amaryllis saw the newspaper, she went at once to John’s father, Mr. Forrester, awash with grief and guilt to tell him the terrible news. She thought it was her fault that John Guido had died because she introduced him to her brother causing him to be invited on the trip. Mr. Forrester said, no, it was his fault because he had urged John Guido to go when he wasn’t sure if he wanted to or not.

As they were comforting each other on their losses, they suddenly heard a familiar whistle in the garden outside—it was John Guido walking up the walk! He knew nothing about the accident, explaining that he had been on the boat, but remembered he had a letter his father wanted him to mail and got off quickly to mail it. Before he could return to the boat, he saw a stray dog injured when a freight box fell on it on the docks, and he stopped to bandage it up. The boat left without him, and though he was at first understandably upset, he eventually decided it was for the best, as he really wanted to just get home and see Amaryllis. So he brought the dog home with him, a “yellow cur” as he called it, blaming it for his rotten luck. Of course, when he realized what that yellow cur had saved him from, he didn’t think it was such bad luck after all.

             The word “cur” is not a word you hear a lot these days (the book was written in the early 1900s); it means “a mangy, scrawny mutt of indeterminate origin”—the implication is something that is ugly, unsightly, and unwanted. Because the attitude of these stray dogs is generally hostile, cowardly and sneaky around humans, the word came to describe anyone who was hostile, cowardly, or sneaky. It is not a complimentary word. And yet it was this very thing, something seemingly insignificant and inconvenient at best, that saved John Guido’s life!

            The story makes me think of all those times you hear about someone having a flat tire and thereby missing the fatal crash that happened up ahead, or forgetting something and turning around to get it, missing the accident that would have killed them if they had been in it. Or the classic—the man who was running late for work the morning the Twin Towers fell. We tend to curse these delays and mishaps because they ruin our plans for the day, and yet hindsight often provides a different perspective, and we can see the hand of God protecting us and working in our lives.

This last year--2020--was for much of the world, I think, a "yellow cur". A worldwide pandemic, quarantines, shutdowns, shipping delays, goods shortages--the list could go on and on! Add to that, the number of people who have been sick and even died, and it just feels like the whole year was full of no-good, rotten, abysmal luck. People have been confined, people have been depressed, people have been frustrated, people have been angry, and I wonder if a lot of the emotional rollercoaster hasn't been caused by the realization that we are not as in control of our lives as we'd like to think, and the fact that rarely anything, it seems, has gone according to our plans!

Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (NIV).” Notice Paul said, "All things." This means that everything that happens in our lives, good or bad, according to plan or horribly inconvenient or even downright deadly, is a part of God’s plan, and He is using it for our good to bring glory to His name. It’s easy to stress when things don’t happen the way we think they should, but we need to instead take a step back and try to see things from heaven’s perspective. We can’t always see the big picture, but we can trust that God has a reason for setbacks and delays and all the other problems in life, and that in the right time His will--not ours!--will be accomplished. And His will for us is always good (Jer. 29:11)! 

I've heard many people say that all the extra time at home has allowed them to really reconnect with their families as they've spent more time together than ever before. And, yes, we are probably all thoroughly sick of and grudgingly resigned to wearing a mask everywhere and constantly washing our hands, etc., but did you know that the number of flu cases was significantly down this winter? For the first time, it seems like everyone is concerned about personal and public hygiene, a phenomenon I can only hope will continue. And even churches and other public gatherings have found that with a little ingenuity and some great technology they have been able to reach a wider audience than ever before through the internet! 

            For our family personally, having school shut down last spring and, as a consequence, Jimmy home from work every day, allowed my husband to focus his undivided attention on managing the contractors as they remodeled our home after the tree fell on our house and building on the 2nd bathroom while the other work was completed. We would not have been able to move back in as quickly as we did if he had had to go to work every day and only been able to focus on the house in the evenings and on weekends!

Take a look at your own life this last year. I'm sure you have had your share (or more than your share) of sorrow, grief, pain and inconvenience in 2020, but I challenge you, look for the blessings that God has brought you even in the midst of all the difficulty. Where can you see the hand of God working in your life for your good and His glory? "Yellow curs", in heaven's eyes, are just the vehicles for God to bring us blessings, and what may seem inconvenient or even heart-breaking at the time may just be God moving us and those we love to exactly where He wants us to be--closer to Him and more dependent on His providential care and guidance. Thank God that He is able to turn what seems to be bad into something good; thank God for the "yellow curs" in our lives!