Benji's Road Trip

This year was Benji's first March Break road trip. Benji is my dog.

Things did not start well. Benji saw me packing bags that morning and promptly threw up all over the kitchen floor.  It took me a while to clean it up.

Then Benji threw up all over the living room carpet. That took even longer to clean up. On the plus side, it is now the cleanest part of the carpet, and will always look that way.

Still, we were all looking forward to our road trip - a 7 hour car ride. After all, Benji couldn't possibly throw up any more, right?

Wrong.

I stopped counting after 3.

One time, I took Benji out of the car just to walk him so he wouldn't get car sick. Benji even threw up on his walk.  But that was O.K. because that one was a problem for the grounds crew at Laurentian University.

But all the other times, Benji puked in the car.

Another time, when Ann-Marie was washing her hands at the mall, after she had cleaned up Benji in the back seat, I decided to drive over to the mall doors to save Ann-Marie a walk back to the car. 

But we didn't get far. As soon as I left the parking spot, Benji puked again. So I went for a 20 second drive back to our parking spot, and we started to clean up all over again.

I have to say, I love Benji. He is a great dog. But I did not like the mess that he made on our journey. And it wasn't just the fact that he made a mess. He did it over and over and over again.

But every time Benji was sick, we still loved him. And we still cleaned things up. Every time.

And finally, we got to the end of our trip. And Benji had a good walk. He was feeling better, and he even had some food before snuggling into bed.

Benji said to me, "Ray, l'm sorry I made such a big mess on our trip."

I said to Benji, "That's OK. I love you anyway."

Feeling a bit down, though, Benji said, "l'm probably the only one in the world whose ever made such a mess of things."

But I had to tell Benji the truth. I told him, "We all make a mess of things sometimes. Every time I do something wrong, and I think I’ve ruined God's plans, Jesus cleans up messy me. After He cleans, He looks at me like I never even made a mess in the first place."

Benji asked, "Why would he do that?"

"Because Jesus loves me, Benji," I answered.

"And are you getting near to the end of your trip?" Benji asked.

"l think I still have a ways to go yet. And l'll probably need a lot more messes cleaned up too."

PRAYER:

Dear Jesus, thank you for going to the cross to clean up our messes. Thank you for making us clean, no matter how much of a mess we make. Even if we mess up, over and over and over again. Thank you for loving us, and help us to learn to love you back.

AMEN.

© 2026 Ray Scott. All rights reserved.

The author grants permission for you to read this story in church for children's time during the service.  This permission includes live streaming for the service.  For the 3rd person narrative and sample closing prayers, consider purchasing "The Book of Benji" soon.