If you have been reading my blogs on a regular basis, you know that we have two wonderful dogs in our home. There are times that having a dog is just like having a child. You have to clean up the messes that a dog can create, you have to make sure they are fed and let outside, you need to make sure that they get proper exercise, and you are to provide for almost all their needs. A dog can be the most adorable and loving creature on earth one minute and a frustrating trouble-maker the next. This weekend I told my husband that while I may at times think having our dogs can be a hassle, I could never imagine my life without a dog in our house.
As I have thought about the benefits which dogs bring into my life, I have come to truly see them as a true gift from God. I think that a dog is God’s way of giving us a very tangible demonstration of one of God’s greatest traits—unconditional love. I am not aware of any creature in God’s creation which demonstrates unconditional love like a dog.
At times when I have gotten angry at one of my dogs for doing something like knocking a lamp off and breaking it, my dog forgives my anger and comes to show me signs of affection. Dogs can sense our emotions and are always the first ones to attempt to provide comfort when we are sad. No one appears to be more excited to see me when I return home from either a short or long absence than my dogs. Cuddling next to me is the most important desire of my dogs. Through their actions, dogs demonstrate a love which has no bound.
God created dogs and equipped them to be messengers of God’s unconditional love for us. I have heard far too many stories of dogs who have been abused by their owners and yet keep returning to them. This reminds me of how many times God is ignored, blamed, lashed out at, and even denied, yet God returns to me over and over with affection, acceptance, forgiveness, and genuine love.
I give thanks to God for giving me dogs to fill my life with unconditional love. I give thanks to God for providing me a tangible example of what God’s unconditional love is like. I give thanks to God for the love that I experience daily from our two dogs.