A couple of years ago on a cold, bleak day, I got a phone call from a woman who asked if I was the pastor. "Yes," I said, "what can I do for you?" "Well," she said, "there has been a death." She went on to tell me that her dog, Pepper, had accidentally gotten out of the fenced-in back yard and had been killed by a car. Her children were very upset. She was upset for them, because they were foster care children, and losing a dog brought up all those feelings of abandonment that these children had already known all too often. She asked if I could come over and say come prayers.

A day later we met at the pet cemetery. When all the prayers were said, the mom gave each child a rose and one by one they walked up to the edge of the grave and put a rose on top of the blanket wrapped around Peppe…