Dogs & Promises

SCRIPTURE: So God made the wild animals of the earth according to their kind, and the cattle according to their kind, and everything that creeps and crawls on the earth according to its kind; and God saw that it was good (pleasing, useful) and He affirmed and sustained it. Genesis 1:25 AMP

THOUGHT: Dogs are a marvelous creation – yes, I know they’ve been domesticated for thousands of years, but that takes nothing away from their fierce loyalty, courage, and kindness to humans. They are good for us, and good to us – as we are, hopefully, for and to them.

I picked the promise of God toward animals to write about today because I watched our Daisy struggling the past week – her last days on earth. The best Labradoodle there ever was, I’m certain. She had a tumor on her spleen break open and it began a cascade of events that was overwhelming. It was so hard to watch this journey, to want to bring comfort, to feel like I was failing, to watch her just fade and fade, yet remain brave and kind. I kept thinking as I administered the petting she sought even when she would no longer eat, “but she’s so alive!” I kept trying to comprehend how everything was about to change and how I wasn’t ready for it. I’m still not. How do you make yourself ready, anyway?

The only thing that seems to bring me some comfort (other than talking to my husband and girls who also love her) is to know that animals are God’s tender creation – he saw that they were good, pleasing, useful, and He affirmed and sustained them, promises Genesis.

We see animals from beginning to end of God’s big story. Think about it: donkeys play a role (speaking when necessary), fish appear on cue to deliver a coin as well as swallow a man whole and keep him alive for three days while he sorts out his loyalties, sheep are a constant metaphor for people, and the serpent – well, don’t get me started. And there are many, many others.

But best of all, Isaiah contains a big promise for the way things will look someday when the prophetic becomes the present:

The wolf will romp with the lamb, the leopard sleep with the kid. Calf and lion will eat from the same trough, and a little child will tend them. Cow and bear will graze the same pasture, their calves and cubs grow up together, and the lion eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens, the toddler stick his hand down the hole of a serpent. Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill on my holy mountain. The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive, a living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide (Is. 11:6-9 MSG).

That’s a profoundly beautiful picture of the world God would have envisioned from the beginning. A peaceable kingdom. A dreadful contrast to our long fall into chaos. A whisper of a world to come that makes me ache for promised restoration. Renewal. A living knowledge of God, ocean-deep, ocean-wide.

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus. Bring your vision to reality. And may Daisy be there waiting and wagging.

SONG: Peace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW6xcmqfiY4; With the Wonder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LR3pIUt010

PRAYER: Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen (Rev. 22:20-21 KJV and the final 17 words of Scripture).