Learning From Animals


Learning From Animals

My cousin Nancy is a dog lover. She takes in strays and is connected with a rescue center. You don’t want to know how many dogs she has in her house at any given  moment.
Today I was reading something written by CS Lewis which made me think of her. He is talking about how God became man in Jesus.

“Lying at your feet is your dog. Imagine, for the moment, that your dog and every dog is in deep distress. Some of us love dogs very much. If it would help all the dogs in the world to become like men, would you be willing to become a dog? Would you put down your human nature, leave your loved ones, your job, hobbies, your art and literature and music, and choose instead of the intimate communion with your beloved, the poor substitute of looking into the beloved's face and wagging your tail, unable to smile or speak? Christ by becoming man limited the thing which to Him was the most precious thing in the world; his unhampered, unhindered communion with the Father.”  C.S. Lewis

My cousin Nancy loves dogs. She might even be willing to become a dog to save them, but I am not sure. Probably she is not sure.

What I am sure of is that God loves humankind enough to become a human being in Jesus Christ. He lived as we live, suffered as we suffer, died as we will die, and was raised as we can be raised in him.
Hebrews 4: 14-16 says, “14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

One more dog story for Nancy: In the nineteenth century, when doctors used to make home visits, a Christian doctor was visiting the home of a man who was dying. The doctor’s dog came with him, and it even came inside the house. The doctor climbed the stairs to the room of the man who was dying and went into his room, but he left his dog on the other side of the door. The dying man talked to the Christian doctor about spiritual things. He said he had trust in Jesus but was very concerned and untrusting about what heaven would be like. He liked to be in control of things, and he was disconcerted that he couldn’t know the details about heaven. At just that time the doctor’s dog on the other side of the door began to whimper for him. 

The doctor said, ”You see my dog has never been in this room, but he wants in. He does not know anything about the room, and he does not care. He simply wants in here because I am here. He wants more than anything to be with me. That’s how heaven must be for us . We know Jesus is there and we have such love and devotion for him that we want only to be with him. Nothing else matters.”

Do you have the love and devotion to Jesus which an animal has for its master? If not, ask him to give it to you.

Winfield Casey Jones is a retired pastor and can be reached at wrjones2002@gmail.com. This column first appeared in the Pearland and Friendswood Reporter News.    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Something (Not Quite Simple) To Keep Reading and Keep Praying Luke 18:1-3, Jesus’ parable of the persistent widow, is interesting to me. In his one-verse introduction to the parable (18:1) Luke, the gospel writer, gives its meaning and the reason Jesus told it. He says, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show they that they should always pray and not give up.”   In the parable and in its further explanation, (verses 2-8) we encounter the cast of characters. There are only three. First there is a judge who does not fear God or care about people. Second there is a widow who persistently comes to the judge with the plea, “Grant me justice against my adversary.” The third character is the woman’s adversary, who owes her justice. Because he won’t act, she needs the judge to compel his action. We learn from Jesus that the judge, though he cares for nothing beyond himself, will eventually give the widow justice though he does not care for God or people. He will do this
Read more

The Antidote to Worry

The Antidote to Worry Do you worry? I think most of us worry at times. Yet I know God doesn’t want us to go through worry, anxiety, or fear. I was reminded recently in an email devotional of a favorite passage which I have not paid enough attention to lately: In Philippians 4:6-7, Paul writes: “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests made known to God, and the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.” It is almost impossible to perform a negative like “Don’t worry,” “Don’t get drunk,” or “Don’t hate.” Indeed, the way to get rid of negative thought and behavior is—with the aid of the Spirit-- to fill the void created by a negative with positive thought and behavior. “Don’t worry; instead pray to God.”   “Don’t get drunk; instead be filled with the Holy Spirit.” “Don’t hate; instead love the Lord your God with all that is in you, and love yo
Read more

Receiving and Using Jesus’s Power and Authority

(Note, [there wasn’t room for this note in the local paper]: I feel so inadequate to write on this topic, because there are many distortions and misuses of scripture’s teachings about truths like the authority of believers and healing. But the temptation often is, when a teaching is distorted or misused, to avoid this teaching altogether, and that is wrong.   Just because people sometimes counterfeit twenty-dollar bills I have not sworn off of them. In the same way we must teach what Jesus teaches us about authority and healing, even though these teachings are frequently distorted.)     I ended last week’s column this way: “When we become adopted children of God through faith in His Son…then I believe Jesus gives us as a community some of his own authority and power.” I continued, “Next week…I shall continue to discuss (from scripture) the kinds of authority which I believe Jesus has given to his people.” So this week, let’s dive again into the Bible in an unexpected place, Gen
Read more