God's Dog

We have a very sweet yellow lab named Yvaine (from the movie Stardust) who is my wife's baby.  She was picked out when only one and a half weeks old and my wife eagerly anticipated her joining our family.  Since then Yvaine has been babied and spoiled to the point where she thinks she's a 61 pound lap dog.

One of the things we love is that she really wants to be with us.  She's content to curl up on the couch or bed next to us (well, mostly my wife), just being close.  When my wife leaves the room, she gets up and follows.  When we come home she jumps up an down, happy to see us whether we've been gone for an hour or a week.  It's really a very simple relationship.  She loves us (again, mostly my wife) so much and without reservation, and wants to be as close to us as possible.

Why does our relationship with God have to be complicated?  He desires nothing more than to be close to us, and wants us to be close to Him.  Yet we run away, resist, decide that we don't have time, and a million other excuses.  I think that a dog's relationship with their owner is a good example of what our relationship with God should be.  Like Yvaine with us, we should want to follow Him around, stay close to Him, and simply be in His presence.  It's not that hard to understand, yet few of us do it.

If you're a good dog owner, you completely care for them.  Our pets don't have to worry about food, shelter, medical care, or really anything.  God is certainly better than we are, so he will take care of us as well.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
    “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  (Matthew 6:25-33)


Let's take time to be with God.  Let's follow Him around, seek His presence, and let Him take care of us.  All he wants is our attention and love, and He will take care of us in return.  Pretty simple.