Brothers and sisters, I hope you can have some patience with me this week. There's so many terrible, frightening, disgusting, hideous, awful things going on in this world that deserve to have a blog written about them, but I am just overwhelmed by it all. I don't even know where to start or what to say.
So, with your permission, I'm going to take a break from commenting on the decay and imminent collapse of civilization this week and talk instead about one of the greatest gifts that God gave the Human Race so that we can cope with all the problems we encounter during our time in this mortal plain.
I'm not talking about the Holy Spirit, who Jesus calls the "Helper" in John 14:26. I'm talking about a visible, tangible, "helper" that I believe God specifically appointed to be the companion, teammate, sidekick, and many other things to the Human Race.
I am talking about the dog.
The word "dog" appears 40 times in the Bible and almost every one of these instances comes in a negative context of contempt or even evil. Perhaps the best known of these verses is Proverbs 26:11; As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.
Then there are some of the words of Yeshua Himself, such as Matthew 7:6 where He says “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.
Also notable in this context is Matthew 15:26: But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
On the other hand, the Bible also gives us several passages which tell us of how we can see evidence of God's plans and purposes in the natural world. For instance, Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
Psalm 19:1–2 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.”
But my personal favorite is Job 12:7–9 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you… or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.”
In other words, God's creation contains many clues as to what He was thinking when He created it, and if we apply this principle to canines, we can see amazing love He has for us, that he created and appointed these marvelous, wonderful, snuggly, adorable, loyal, loving and above all useful creatures to be ever by our side.
The Science Behind my Theory
Scientists have demonstrated that dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) possess genetic characteristics that no other animals have which make them uniquely suited to be companions for human beings.
This includes the saliva and microbes found in their mouths and digestive tracts which make them able to digest grains, rice and vegetables. I believe God did that so that humans and their dogs could eat together, which is one of the most powerful ways that humans bond.
Dogs also have unique characteristics in their adrenal glands, jaw size, ear cartilage, coat pigmentation and many other things which no other species of animals have, including wolves, coyotes, foxes and other wild animals that otherwise share much of the same genes dogs have. I believe God did that so that dogs would play with their human companions and have coats that were soft enough for humans to pet and snuggle with them, and ears that would make us laugh when the dogs moved them in certain ways.
Dogs also have smaller larynxes then wolves or other canine species, so they make noises that their human companions think are cute and funny and endearing instead of scary, like the howling of wolves or the yapping of coyotes and the cackling laugh of jackals.
But for me, the most convincing proof that God created and appointed dogs to be a special companion for human beings is what biologists call the "Human–dog oxytocin bonding loop."
In simple language, the brains of dogs and humans secrete the chemical oxytocin, which is a bonding hormone, while interacting with each other, just like human infants and their parents do.
That is NOT an accident!
That is NOT evolution!
That is evidence that even before God so loved the world that he sent His only begotten son so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life, He so loved the world that He sent us dogs.
Why is Aaron Talking About This Now?
I recently watched a movie called "Heart of the Beast" which stars Brad Pitt and literally only has two other human actors in it, both for just a few minutes and a few rather unremarkable lines of dialogue. The majority of the movie is about interactions between Brad and his dog, whose name is "Odin" but who he affectionately calls "Odie" which reminds us of the dog from the Garfield comics.
I won't ruin the movie by telling you too much about it but just suffice it to say I commend this movie to you. You won't regret watching it. It will remind you why you love your dog so much if you already have one and I hope it also inspires you to get a dog if you don't have one already.
My Personal Story
"I want a dog."
This simple, four-word sentence changed my life, and the life of my family. It was the first complete sentence in the English language that my eldest son ever spoke to me and he said it at the prompting of his mother, who told him that it was time to let me know what he wanted for his upcoming birthday.
Two years previously, I had taken my family on a short vacation to a kibbutz up in the Galilee. A few moments after we got to the cabin where we would be staying during this trip, as we were unpacking our suitcases and putting clothes in the closets, a friendly golden lab casually approached the cabin door and announced her arrival with a simple "WOOF" which prompted my sons to squeal with delight and open the door so the dog could come in. For the four days we were at this kibbutz, that dog was never more than two feet away from my sons. She followed us around everywhere, wagging her tail, curling up at my sons' feet when they sat down to eat, or watch TV, sleeping on the floor in between their beds in their room at the cabin, etc.
On our last day there, as we were walking towards the bus stop to leave the kibbutz, she went with us and sat down on the ground next to my sons so they could pet her a little more as they sat on the bench and waited for the bus. After the bus arrived and we all got on board, the dog stayed in her spot at the bus stop, calmly watching us. My sons both waved goodbye to her as the bus drove away and she slowly faded out of sight.
In subsequent emails I told my friends who lived on that kibbutz about this golden lab, but none of them had ever noticed such a dog on the kibbutz before and didn't know if there were any golden labs there now. That was somewhat puzzling to me, as I compared it to my experience of living on a kibbutz in the Negev many years ago and working in the dairy farm with a man who owned a black and white border collie named Bessie. Years later I happened to spend a few hours on that kibbutz, just passing through on my way to something else, but while I was there I asked a random person I met there if Bessie was still around and this person said of course she was and led me straight to the dairy farm so I could say hello. My old boss was still there, but he didn't remember me at all, which was only fair since I'd also forgotten his name. But I remembered Bessie, and she remembered me, and she was very happy to see me.
All of that is to say, I always figured that friendly dogs would be well known on any kibbutz they were part of, but this golden lab apparently wasn't. That, and they way she'd acted while we were there, made me wonder if she was real, or if we'd imagined her, or if she was an angel, or what.
In any case, this dog made an even bigger impression on my sons than she'd made on me. In fact, without telling me, my wife encouraged my sons to pray that I would let them get a dog of their own, and they continued praying that prayer every night for the next two years. My wife never told me about that and she assumed that I would say no to the idea of getting a dog because I didn't like her sister's dog and had been very annoyed when that dog had come over to our apartment for a visit once. I had also commented on that occasion that I didn't think our landlord would be happy having a dog in the apartment, which my wife took to mean that I wouldn't be willing to even ask our landlord if we could have a dog of our own.
But then, after two years of praying and hoping, my wife decided that if my son was ever going to get the dog he wanted so badly, he had better ask me for it and she promised to help him convince me to say yes.
In the event, that's exactly what happened.
He asked me, in English, for a dog, and a few moments later, she told me that he'd been praying for a dog for two years. If that wasn't enough to convince me to say yes, she added that the counselor at school had said having a pet would be good for the emotional development of both of our children.
I took a deep breath, and promised my wife to try and convince the landlord to let us get a dog.
In the event, our landlord had no problem with the idea, so I had no more excuses.
The only question at that point was what kind of dog we'd get. After discussing a few different options, I told my wife that I'd had a Corgi when I was a kid and that was probably the only kind of dog I'd be comfortable with. She'd had a different idea but she asked my son if a Corgi would fit the bill and he said yes. A few days later, my sister-in-law saw some Corgi puppies for sale Facebook marketplace. My son took one look at the pictures and declared that he couldn't live without the one that had red fur.
A purebred corgi puppy costs NIS 8,000 and that includes a bunch of inoculations and certifications and whatnot. I had some severe sticker shock when my wife told me that, but she assured me that we could afford it and in any case, this far into the process, we had no choice. My son would be deeply traumatized if he didn't get this puppy he'd already fallen in love with and he'd be angry at me, and God, for the rest of his life. I knew my wife was right about all that, so I took another deep breath and gave the final okay.
The breeder was up in Herzliya, so my wife and son took the bus up there a couple of days later to bring the puppy home.
They came back that evening and the look on my son's face as he came in the door was simply radiant with joy. A few moments later, my wife walked in with the puppy in her arms, and I saw her for the first time and my heart melted like butter in the microwave. I forgot all about the NIS 8,000 this puppy had cost us and how I wasn't looking forward to housetraining (that part took longer and was messier than I was anticipating, but we got there eventually) and all the other nonsense.
That first evening she was home with us, I got an overwhelming feeling that I had absolutely done the right thing and that this would end up being one of the parenting decisions I would absolutely not regret. As time went on, this feeling was confirmed as this amazing little Corgi became my furry little four legged daughter and the source of immense joy and fun for my entire family.
She is "our" dog in a cosmic, eternal sense. It is no accident that she's the dog we ended up getting, and every time I look at her, I see a manifestation of God's love for us.
Conclusion
As I said at the beginning of this blog, there's a lot going on in this world which is scary, ugly, awful and absurd. But God has given us signs that He is still on the Throne and we can be confident of His love for us, His awareness of our needs, His intention to provide for those needs and His ultimate plans and purposes for our provision and our good.
Dogs are one of those signs, and I believe we should be very grateful for them.
That's what I've got for you this week brothers and sisters. I hope it blessed someone.
