Dog Park Dog Killers

This story totally breaks my heart. I have a dog named Smokey, and she is such an absolute love. (Please see my Smokey below)

When I first heard the dog's name was Smokey, it sent a chill right through me. To the left here is Smokey Mock, who died in Grant Park.

Chicago Tribune article about Smokey's senseless death in Grant Park on Saturday evening.

The city of Chicago puts in this dog park, into Grant Park in the heart of the city. There are electrical access panels in the asphalt. Why? Especially with snow and rain and all the types of weather we get here in Chicago, that seems to be far too hazardous. Did they not think something like this could happen on the paths? How can this possibly be allowed as normal building of park pathways? What if it was a small child who stepped on this panel? What if it was several children? This is unimaginable to think that something so very dangerous was just right there in the middle of a very public area with no warning signs and nothing to indicate any kind of a possible danger could be so close nearby.

As I enjoyed my sweet Smokey this evening, playing with her with her toys, as she would bring each one and drop it by my side, I couldn't help but think of a family who can't enjoy the same thing with their dog tonight.

My heart breaks for this family and their tragedy. Dogs truly are a member of the family, and to see a beloved family member die in such a horrible, tragic way has to be extremely difficult to bear. They are in my prayers as they grieve their loss.

Smokey Wheeler

What Greater Love?

Our Lord loves us so much, from the day He created us. He knows every detail about us, for He made it:

Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. (Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV)

For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them. (Psalm 139:13-16 NKJV)

And He loved us so much He came to save us, and nothing can separate us from Him:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:


“ For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39 NKJV)


There is no greater love.


Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Remember What Love Really Is

There is a real love, and it is a love that comes from God. On the day before Valentine's day, this real love is the love that lasts, and the one I am thinking of today. It will be the love I am celebrating on this "Hallmark Holiday" tomorrow.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13, NKJV)

~~Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.