At 81, Edna Kowalski lived alone in an apartment building in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where pets were not allowed.
But for an entire year, every Sunday after church, she took a cab to the county shelter and asked to spend time with the same dog.
His name was Chester.
He was an old beagle mix with a gray face, and he had already spent two years at the shelter. The staff began bringing a folding chair into the kennel aisle for Edna. She would sit beside him for an hour, reading the Sunday newspaper out loud while Chester leaned against her knee.
After about a month, the volunteers started noticing something. By 11 o’clock every Sunday, Chester would be waiting at the front of his kennel before Edna’s cab had even pulled into the parking lot.
Edna never asked to adopt him.
Eventually, one of the volunteers asked her why.
She explained that her lease did not allow pets and that, living on a pension, she could not afford to move somewhere else. But the staff noticed what happened whenever her cab was late. Chester would pace back and forth at the front of his kennel, waiting until he heard her voice somewhere down the hallway.
A volunteer mentioned the situation to the shelter director, who decided to call Edna’s building manager herself.
After hearing that Edna had spent 52 Sundays in a row sitting with Chester, the manager agreed to make a written exception for one senior dog.
That same month, Chester moved into Edna’s apartment.
Now, instead of sitting in a shelter kennel with a folding chair, Edna reads the Sunday paper to him from her own armchair.
My Commentary:
Edna could not give Chester a home, but she could give him an hour.
So every Sunday after church, she showed up. She sat beside an old dog nobody had chosen, read him the newspaper, and gave him something every living creature needs: the assurance that someone cares.
There is something deeply Christ-like about simply showing up. Jesus did not merely love humanity from a distance. He entered people’s lives. He sat with the lonely, touched the forgotten, and noticed those who others passed by.
Edna could not change Chester’s circumstances, so she gave what she could — her presence. And eventually, that faithful love changed his circumstances too.
Perhaps the most beautiful detail is Chester waiting at his kennel door every Sunday. He had learned that someone was coming for him.
Isn’t that one of the great promises of our faith?
God comes for us. God does not forget us.
Sometimes love cannot immediately fix the problem.
Sometimes love simply pulls up a folding chair and stays.
And sometimes, because someone cared enough to stay,
a shelter finally becomes a home.
Think of a time when YOU showed your love by pulling up a folding chair and staying.
PUT GOD FIRST AND WATCH YOUR LIFE CHANGE!!
