In the beginning, (Bereisheet) God created…Genesis 1:1
Bereisheet begins with the Hebrew letter Bet, and one of my favorite explanations of this word comes from Rabbi Jason Sobel’s book, Mysteries of the Messiah.
When bet is placed at the beginning of a word, it functions as the preposition “in” or “on account of.” Therefore, Genesis 1:1 can be read, “On account of the First [Reisheet] the Lord created the heavens and the earth.” {Mysteries of the Messiah page 19}
John 1:3 says, All things were made through Him, and apart from Him nothing was made that has come into being. We serve a Creator, One who speaks and it becomes. With a command, He speaks to death, and it becomes life, just ask Lazarus. A Creator that from before He spoke in the beginning, He knew where we would be in the here and now. He knew that in 2023, a dog would give birth to a litter of pups and that one of those puppies would come to be known by the name of Rosie. Yeshua stated in Matthew 10:29 that not even a single sparrow falls to the ground without the Father knowing, which means He knew from the beginning, Bereisheet, the miracle of Rosie, and the lives that would be changed forever because He created her on and for purpose.
But Rosie isn’t the beginning of the story taking place in the here and now. For that, we must go back 51 years to 1972. On December 16th of that year, a baby was born. This baby was also a miracle. When he was 2 days old, lying in a basket, he was delivered to the door of a couple who had desperately tried to have children of their own but couldn’t. So, through a private adoption, he grew up not knowing his biological family, but with a family who loved him as their own, cherished and adored him. Growing up as an only child, he knew that he was adopted, and even the fairy tale story of how his parents received him.
Lurking in the shadows, as he does, was the enemy. When the boy was in jr. high, his mother was diagnosed with cancer, and she would battle the disease until he was 18, and the Lord called her home. He did not walk the road of loss alone, as he got married the following year and had his first child the year after that. Tragedy would strike again within a few short years, however, as his grandmother passed away 4 days before the birth of his youngest son, and a couple of years later, his father too succumbed to cancer. Before her passing, however, his grandmother told him that he wasn’t an only child, that he had 3 siblings out there, somewhere. While this information was unexpected, he never pursued it as he believed that if he was meant to meet his biological family, it would happen. God had given him to his adopted family for a purpose and in his mind, that was just the way it was supposed to be.
Over the years life progressed, and the internet and social media were born. The world began to move fast-paced and became much smaller. Connection with others was at the click of a mouse and you could follow anyone from anywhere in the world. And this is where Rosie comes into the story. Through a Facebook post made by one of my Tribe members, she shared she had a litter of puppies who needed a home. This post was made on my Granddaughter’s birthday, and on a whim, we decided to get her one of the adorable Chorkie puppies. When we got there, the puppies were set on the floor for her to see them, and to let the puppies get a feel for us as well. It didn’t take long for Rosie to crawl over and curl up beside Rory and the rest, as they say, is history. We expected a typical dog adventure. Boy, were we wrong.
A few weeks after we brought Rosie home, she contracted parvo, a deadly disease that many dogs do not live through. We got her to our vet and were told that she would be quarantined, on IV fluids, antibiotics, and nutrients because she would not be able to eat. Parvo attacks the intestinal tract and destroys it. Most dogs die due to starvation and dehydration, even with treatment. Each day we received twice a day phone calls with updates, and each day we could hear in the doctor’s voice that she didn’t expect Rosie to survive and was surprised each day she made it. After a week, we got the call that she was having a really bad day and that she either wouldn’t make it through the night, or it would be the turning point for her to get better. I have to say, we had been praying night and day for this dog. Our granddaughter too had been crying out to God for Him to save her puppy. People we knew were in agreement with us about this tiny dog who by this time had dropped down to about 1.5 pounds. When we got the call the next morning, the report was that she was better, and she had even taken a tiny bit of food and was able to keep it down. 3 days later, she was off of the IV, was eating, and got to come home. God answered our prayers and saved Rosie’s life.
When we took her back for her follow-up appointment and were checking out, one of the other doctors had come out from the back, with tears in his eyes, and told the receptionists that he just had a really bad case. When he saw Rosie, he commented on how cute she was, and when we mentioned she was doing so much better, he got a shocked look on his face and said, “WAIT! THIS IS THE PARVO PUPPY?” When we told him she was, he lit up and said, “I needed this! I needed a win today! This is why we do what we do!” God used this little dog He had showered His mercy upon to touch that doctor’s heart at the moment he needed it.
As Rosie came back to herself and gained her weight back, we started looking into what was in packaged dog food, foods that dogs should stay away from, and what foods were beneficial to them. This led us to start making our dog’s food, as well as their treats. This in turn opened the door for us to start a dog treat business. (Shameless plug here, Bubbles & Squeak Dog Treats) We officially launched our business on January 20, 2024. And this is where this story goes to another level, the “Only God can do that” level.
A woman that I have been friends on Facebook with since 2011 sent me a message letting me know that she wanted to place an order for some treats. The reason I am sharing the date of our friendship is important. This was back with social media was still young, and you just added people, even if you didn’t personally know them. One reason was at that time, getting as many friends as you could was a status symbol, another was that they played the same game as you, such as Farmville, and you needed items that others could help you with. I will be honest, there were times when I would purge my friends list, I would pause over her and consider unfriending her, but then she would interact on a post, or I just had an unsettled feeling about hitting the unfriend button. I didn’t know why, but GOD KNEW. When I got her shipping information and saw where she was from, I told her, “Fun fact, that’s where my husband was born.” What she replied not only blew our minds but has changed our lives forever.
She told me that my husband was most likely her half-brother, and then began to lay out all the details of things that only a direct family member could know. She was 13 when he was born and has been looking for him his whole life. Needless to say, we were beyond shocked, but at the same time elated. As my husband is a former cop, he of course has done his homework and digging to verify things, and he has no doubt whatsoever. When she told me that had I not opened the door by mentioning where he was born, she might have never said anything. Since 2011, she has watched our boys grow up from afar because the enemy again showed up in the form of fear. He made her fear that if she opened up to us she would be rejected and then lose what little bit of connection with him she had. God turned the tables, however, and in the year of the open door, opened the door of reunification in a way that only He can.
Had my Tribe member not posted about the dogs when she did, we wouldn’t have gotten Rosie, had Rosie not gotten parvo, she wouldn’t have touched that doctor or prompted us to start our business, had we not started our business, my husband and his sister would possibly never have reunited. God knows the beginning from the end. He knew before He ever said, “Let there be light”, that His miracle creation Rosie would be opening doors in 2024. He knew that this story would go forth and encourage others to see that even when you can’t see it, His hand is working in our lives. As Rabbi Ryan said while praying this morning, “You write the script of our lives”. Where will this story go? We will see as it’s written by the Author and Finisher of our faith. Because only He knows.