The Second Gaze - Cozy
Scout will be my model for likely a lot of photos in this journey and she was last night and again this morning. She is a very cuddly dog. She loves to get close to us when we are on the couch and she has a way of seemingly continuing to push closer and closer. She definitely knows how to be cozy. Last night she cozied with my wife as we watched a zoom video of an honor one of our sons was receiving. So she was cuddling in the midst of a celebration. This morning, she found me after I made the mistake of reading emails and checking the news before I did my meditation time and fell into the trap of “doom scrolling.” She jumped up and curled right up next to me. She recognized what I was needing and she met me in that weighty space I was feeling this morning.
Got me thinking about my intentionality of recognizing when others need someone to come alongside them - maybe not in the way that Scout does with us - but seeing the hurt in another, recognizing the feelings of another, being willing to take that extra time to honor the experience of another and see them both in the best moments and in the most difficult.
Paul wrote of this in his second letter to the Corinthian church when he said:
Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we may be able to comfort those experiencing any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God
2 Corinthians 2:3-4
In this way, we are able to bring the comfort of God to one another.