October 2021

 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. - I John 4:16

I have two dogs. I also have a cat, but I’ll write about her some other time. For right now, I want to write about my dogs. One of them specifically. If you’ve never owned a dog, you may wonder why I’m writing about mine for the church newsletter. If you have owned one, though, you know that there are dozens of things that a dog can teach you about the nature of God, the nature of humanity, and the nature of… nature I guess. They teach us about loyalty, and total devotion. They teach us about obedience and disobedience and how the two have outcomes and consequences. They teach us about persistence and endurance. And on top of it all they’re just magnificent creatures that show off the handiwork of the creator.

One of my dogs is a husky with white fur and striking blue eyes. He’s a beautiful boy and everybody who meets him will tell you the same. He’s getting older, but he still has a spring in his step most days and he loves all kinds of mischief. I love him. I’ve loved him since we got him nine years ago. He and I have our ups and downs of course because sometimes what I expect from him and what he delivers are two very different things, but I love him and he loves me.

I have this vivid memory of him that sticks in my mind. He and I and my wife were sitting next to a small bonfire. I was rubbing his belly and Carolina and I were watching the stars and talking. This dog has a particular habit of fidgeting whenever his belly isn’t getting rubbed exactly the way he wants and he was doing that while we were sitting there. The problem was, he was very close to the fire and every time he would roll over or get up to wander around, his tail, or paw, or whatever would come dangerously close to catching on fire. It’s like he didn’t know that the heat could hurt him and all he wanted was, well... what he wanted. And this memory strikes me and sticks with me because it’s one of those moments that my dog taught me something remarkably poignant about my relationship with God.

All I wanted was for my dog to be with me, to be safe, and to love me. I wanted him to obey me but not because I didn’t want him to have good things. Exactly the opposite actually. I wanted him to have the good things I was offering him in the belly rubs. He wanted to wander and risk the pain of the fire for what amounted to no really good reason. I wanted him to obey me, to be with me, so that he could be safe and have the good things I was trying to give him. He wanted to be somewhere else.

I’m so often like that with God. I know that He wants me to be with Him too, that He wants me to be safe and to receive the blessings that He’s trying to give me, but I’m often too busy wandering off and almost lighting myself on fire.

But there’s something better in there and it’s the lesson of unconditional love: the kind of love that dogs have for their people and the kind of love that God has for us too. See, God is faithful all the time. Even while I’m wandering off, God is faithful. He fills up what I’m missing and He sets right the things that I do wrong and He even sprays me down with a holy fire extinguisher when I light myself on fire. He is good all the time and He loves me all the time, even when I don’t really deserve it.

Just like my dogs; and that love makes me love them, both God and my dogs, that much more.