YOUR PUPPY''S LOVE SHOWS YOU HOW:

TO SHOW UNLIMITED DEVOTION

“And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (KJV, translates love as “charity”} 1 Corinthians 13:13.

My last dog, as a child, was Ted. Ted was of somewhat dubious background. The SPCA would probably have called him a Rotweiler. We just called him a “German police dog.” He had the proper markings and somewhat the build of a Rotweiler. Ted was devoted to our family. When my father was away, which was often, he slept by our kitchen door. Even a violent thunder and rainstorm would not induce him to come inside, but neither would he abandon his place as protector, however he only need to hear dad’s car coming, and he would vanish, perhaps for days at a time. Because he liked us, he would frequently come and sit in front of us, extending his right paw to “shake hands.” After my father left permanently, we could no longer afford to keep him so we found a new home on a farm for him. Unfortunately he preferred us and kept returning to us until we had to physically drive him away. After that he totally ignored us. We had broken his heart, not to speak of our own in the process.

Years later in Africa, we were given a lovely Pekingese female. Peaches really loved to be the center of attention and had the adorable habit of sitting up and “praying” with her two front paws together and giving a single yip.

Our final dog was another Pekingese, a male who followed Phyllis about everywhere he could go. He was blind and crippled with arthritis by that time and seldom ventured anywhere he did not hear her moving about. It broke our hearts to leave him behind, but we left instructions that he should be put down by the SPCA as he would certainly mourn our departure.

We can learn a lesson from our pets. Each of these, showed its love in a different way, but if we love our Lord, we will find a way to show it. We will let Him know through our prayers and genuine devotion as both Ted and Peaches did. Let us have an attitude of prayer, conversing frequently with our Lord. Scripture says “pray without ceasing.” God walked in the cool of the evening in the garden with Adam and Eve. He misses that closeness, and so should we. We need it. We need to listen for the footsteps of Christ, and follow closely. If we don’t follow closely, we will break his heart, to our own eternal loss. Ted treated us as strangers. He could not understand that we simply could not keep him as before.