BY JIM LEE
The following is just a parable from my own imagination, meant to show my gratitude for one small part of God’s creation. It is not meant to be taken as literally true or theologically correct.
God looked down from heaven one day and saw how people were getting so many wrong ideas about what He was like. He sadly listened to them as they spoke about an angry and unreasonable God, one that was harsh and demanding and almost impossible to please. Being very dismayed, He wondered, “How can I show all these people that I just want to love them and receive them and forgive them? How can I show them that I have compassion for them, and my love is not based on the requirement of good performance? How can I relate to them that my love is unconditional? How can I let them know that their lives are meant to be a lived joyfully and gratefully, that life is a gift I have generously given to them just because I delight in who they are and what they mean to me?” God thought for a while and then said, “I want to do something a little different from what anybody has ever seen! I think this will be fun, and it will illustrate to everybody my feelings for them. So I will make something that is very, very special to give to them.” With a twinkle of excitement in His eyes, God continued. “I will make one amazing animal that will come in many different sizes and shapes and colors. I will give each of them a unique personality.
Some will be smart, and some will be kind of dumb. Some will be beautiful and some will be ugly. Some will be more like a little wind-up toy, and others will be big and fierce looking. With a few exceptions,
the bigger they are, the more gentle they will be. But one thing they will all have in common: Like me, they will love unconditionally. Like me, they will patiently wait for the one they love to just spend a few
cherished moments with them. Whether the one they are waiting for is a pauper or a king or a criminal, they won’t let it make any difference in their loyalty and love and affection. No ~atter how long they have to wait, they will always be so eager and happy to see the ones they love. To them, they will happily greet every meeting as if it has been a long long time since they have been together. And, as more than just a coincidence, I will give them a name that is the same as mine … only backward!” So God gave us these amazingly faithful creatures, and even put a tail on the rear end … and not just a tail like other creatures have, but one that even WAGS back and forth, just for something extra to show their pleasure at our presence! And all of heaven rejoiced that God had come up with such a novel way to show to all people HIS love and friendship and joy!
This is the end of the parable, but I want to close with a few more comments.
Even from my childhood, how many times have I felt that I didn’t have a friend in the world, but… my dog was there.
How many times have I felt like I was a fool and a failure? Maybe I struck out with the bases loaded. Maybe I failed the big test. Maybe the current “love of my life” took off with somebody else. Maybe I just messed up everything with everybody in my life.
But… my dog was there.
Even today, when I feel misunderstood or mistreated, I find comfort in these sweet, loving creatures. How anyone could ever abuse one is beyond my understanding.
And when as a husband I do or say something stupid or insensitive, and I am sent to “the doghouse” … well, my dog will just wag his tail and happily move over to make room for me.
President Harry Truman said, “If you want to have a friend in Washington, get a dog!” The same is true in many other places too.
To me, this article will be.worthwhile if just one person will go to a local animal shelter and rescue his/her potential best friend , who anxiously waits in a cage on death row.
So … here’s to “Jip” the part- chow … and to “Butch” who got hit by a car while running toward me after school. .. and “Scottie”, the bulldog-bird dog mix who spent nine years as my best friend .. . and “Morgan”, the greatest squirrel-hunting Boston Terrier who ever lived … and “Princess” and “Sugar” and “Leonard Parker” … and “Maggie” and “Ben”, and eight pound “Muffin” who rules inside our house, and sweet old useless “Hunter” and destructive little “Beecher” who placed land mines throughout our back yard … and my grand-dog “Henry,” the Yorkie who thinks he’s a Labrador … and poor old “Lucky,” and so many others who looked to me with eyes of trust and were so delighted to spend some time with me even if nobody else wanted to.
I hope that I was as good a friend to you as you were to me. Thank you for being in my life.
One evening I sat down in the back yard to pray, and my dog sat beside me, looking up at me and wagging his tail. I said, “Dear Lord, help me to want to be with you as much as this dog wants to be
with me.”
And God said, “That will never happen. But the point is that I want to be with YOU as much as the dog does!”
Thank you, God … for four-legged grace.