Jesus Had A Dog

My wife and I love dogs. We like the big dogs, but occasionally a beagle works its way into our hearts. Our dog Max has been a source of comfort, love and protection. We have learned countless lessons about life and love from our lab/boarder collie mix. And we’ve often mused that the best Christian we’ve ever met is a dog.

Please don’t think I’m adding some new dogma to religious thought. It’s just that the dogs we’ve welcomed into our home have been forgiving to a fault, loving to the nth degree, and completely giving of themselves for the good of others. That’s more than most of us manage to muster in our walk of faith.

We also find ourselves often conjecturing what Max is thinking. I’ve mused here before about his perfectly appropriate and human-like responses. Just last night, Barbara made a comment about Max that drew a deep sigh from him. We just laughed.

Don’t get me wrong, a dog is a dog. But that’s a great thing. If a dog were human, it would surely render it full of faults and flaws.

With the dearth of Jesus related specials on TV here in the Easter season, we’ve been presented with both fact and fiction in regards to the analysis of the Messiah. We like to speculate about all the details of His life. I merely have one to offer. I believe Jesus owned a dog. I have no proof, no Biblical or extra-Biblical texts to bolster this K9 kerygma. I just see it as being a fine thing to contemplate. Great men and good dogs seem to go together well in my mind.

Why even bother to mention these odd observations? Merely out of fancy and frivolity I suppose. But if there is something here that can be taken away, it’s the reminder of the awesome lessons of God we can learn from his so-called lesser creatures. Certainly there is nothing lesser about a dog. Their examples of pure, undiluted, unshakable love and devotion causes us to see that such devotion does not have to take place blindly or foolishly. A dog is devoted because that’s his nature; his desire to to fit within his pack. We too have longings for relevance and belonging. Yet we so often pursue that through self-promotion and self-adulation. Not a dog. Without giving up a whit of doghood, our precious four legged friends give themselves to us without regard for their own well-being. Ignore a dog for days, give him no food or water, smack him around like a rag doll, and he’ll still love you. I pray, though, that you never experiment with that proposition!

It really doesn’t matter if Jesus had a dog. Such talk is silliness. What does matter is knowing that intelligence and faith, devotion and well-being do go hand in hand. We learn this from one of God’s greatest gifts… our dogs.

Dogs Wearing Shoes

Anthropomorphic dogs make another appearance here at the fish pond.  This time, it’s dogs wearing shoes.  And it’s true.

Police dogs in parts of Germany will start wearing shoes.  No, not those high healed jobbies with goldfish, and not some new strain of Air Jordans.  These are real honest to good biscuits dog shoes.  These K9 Keds are designed to protect the doggy detectives’ feet, er, paws from all that may harm them such as broken glass, etc, etc.

I suspect my dog, Max, would be opposed to the idea.  He enjoys his utter nakedness too much.  He dislikes any accoutrement we thrust upon him.  But maybe it’s because we do so at the expense of his humility.  That’s right, we do it so we can get a good laugh.

Speaking of Max…  we caught him watching TV again tonight.  I mean really, truly watching.  He sits there and watches for long periods of time.  Man, that really weirds us out.

One other doggy tidbit that comes to mind involves a wedding and a hound.  The bride’s dog was the ring bearer.  They brought him down the aisle, ring attached to his collar.  I was officiating, and I was more than happy to allow it to take place.  After all, our dogs are such an important part of our lives. 

In his book “Heaven”, Randy Alcorn suggests that it’s possible we’ll see our beloved pets again in Heaven.  Sound preposterous?  I thought so, too, until he made the point that we serve a generous God who loves to give good gifts to his children.  If God can do anything, and he longs for our simple happiness, why wouldn’t he regenerate our dear doggies?  Yeah, I know, sounds funny just to think about it, doesn’t it?  But do we spend enough time thinking about the many ways God adds to our joy?  Or, do we focus on the negatives that we miss the fact that there are many, many more blessings?  Take a minute to look at all the wonderful ways our lives are made more complete and enjoyable, then thank the One who takes such good care of us.  Life is so much better than we let ourselves realize.

Know When To Hold ‘Em, Know When To Fold ‘Em

It’s a phenomenally phenomenal phenomenon.  Or something like that.  My simple little humble blog has found a niche in an area that I never expected.  Amidst my random observations related to my experience as a pastor and Christ-follower, I happened to mention the “dogs playing poker” picture in a passing attempt at levity (see the original art piece that I’ve included below).  The result has been a massive influx of surfers who searched the phrase “poker” or “dogs playing poker”.  I could have guessed the popularity of the former…  but I never would have thought the poker playing pooches would have such a following. 

I’ve also discovered that, contrary to my previous mention, there is a known origin to the painting.  Here’s the quiki wiki:

Dogs Playing Poker(DPP) refers collectively to a series of sixteen oil paintings by C. M. Coolidge, commissioned in 1903 by Brown & Bigelow to advertise cigars. All the paintings in the series feature anthropomorphized dogs, but the nine in which dogs are seated around a card table have become derisively well-known in the United States as examples of manly working-class taste in home decoration. Critic Annette Ferrara describes DPP as “indelibly burned into (the American collective-schlock subconscious) through incessant reproduction on all manner of pop ephemera.” – taken from Wikipedia

God bless the internet where even the most inane or archaic information can be made known.

Poker itself is actually a sticky subject for one in the ministry such as myself.  There are some circles where any card playing is still considered to be of Beelzebub.  When I found out that my daughter had gained a taste for the game, I became a bit concerned that next she’d be racking up tens of thousands of dollars in gambling debts.  I’ve learned that can’t happen when you bet with M & Ms.

So, to all my new-found web friends, I welcome you in with a bit a chagrin.  I can’t help but wonder what some of you think when you find that a poker search leads you to my humble blogarena.  No, I don’t play poker.  But yes, I have, in my past, played the dime slots.  I garnered quite a jackpot and decided to parlay it into a bigger fortune.  Instead, I lost every, uh, dime of it including all the coins I originally brought with me.  But that sad tale is from a long ago far away time.

My gambles today tend to be on people, which is a much riskier investment.  I seem to wear my heart on my sleeve which can be especially painful when you lose your shirt.  But every once and a while you help someone in some small way and you see something in their eye that wasn’t there a moment ago.  That’s when this ministry work really pays off.  It’s more of a thrill than anything else I’ve ever encountered in life.  I tend to believe that Christ meant it when he told us to feed the hungry, care for the sick, and bring justice to the trampled-upon.  It’s not glamorous work, but it’s a great way to live a life.  I also suspect it’s common ground where we can all meet and agree that there is still much work to be done.

Dogs Playing Poker

Sometimes I wonder who the first person was to do something that has now become a part of our culture’s iconoclasm.

Who originally drew the fine American artistic piece, “Dogs Playing Poker”?  Who first melded magic with material and brought to life the original velvet Elvis?  Who is the lyrical genius who first parodied the Christmas classic by singing, “Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg…”?  For that matter, what sensitive soul first intoned that wondrous melody of old, “Do your ears hang low, do they wobble when you walk, can you tie ‘em in a bow, can you tie ‘em in a knot?”

Yes, my friends, our culture is rich with art, is it not?

So many long not to be anonymous, and yet, years down the road that will be our sad fate.  There can only be a few Lincolns or Bachs or Twains or Cronkites.  The rest of us must suffer the ignominy of history’s dust pile.  But that’s not so bad.

As a pastor, I often encourage my congregation that they do have a legacy to leave…  even if their names are forgotten down the line.  I cannot, off the top of my head, tell you my great-grandmother’s name, but I can tell you that she prayed for me long before I was ever born.  This precious family heirloom of prayer has been handed down, acknowledged, and passed on.  The wonderful thing is, when you touch a life for Christ, you are doing something that will last at least a hundred years.  You are changing a life that will change a life and so on.  Christ gets the glory – it is through Him all great things are done.  But you and I share the glory, an eternal story, that rings on through the halls of eternity.

Be help, hope and healing for someone and leave a legacy that lasts.