Living Lutheran
As I was preparing to write this article, Gus, my 9-month-old puppy,
was hit by a car. My husband and I had been at a family funeral when our
pet sitter broke the news. It seemed like a cruel joke. How could
anyone have faith at a time like this?
That night, after visiting Gus at the emergency clinic, I couldn’t
sleep. In the early hours of the morning I grasped for my phone and sent
out an SOS, asking family and friends to pray for him. I was feeling so
weary and incapable of prayer, it felt comforting to lean on their
faith.
One by one messages from loved ones came in—reading them brought
fresh tears to my eyes. Eventually I attempted a feeble prayer,
whispering, “Lord, if you are out there, please let my puppy live.
Please.”
Gus made it through the night, and the next day and the day after that. Today, to our amazement, he is happy and healthy.
Through pets, gifts of God’s creation, God continually amazes us. In response to our “Pets and faith” call, Living Lutheran’
s readers flooded my inbox with a multitude of reflections, each naming
special dogs, cats—and even a llama—that brought them closer to God.
What follows are a few common themes and highlights from those letters.
They teach us unconditional love
In her 13 years of life, Lucy the beagle accompanied Sean Wilson
through highs and lows. When Wilson’s wife Hadley died three years after
they married, he was devastated. “It was much, much, too soon,” Wilson
recalled. “My life fell to pieces.”
He said the only constant in his life was Lucy: “No matter how bad I
felt about myself or the hand I had been dealt, Lucy was there. There
was never judgment, never frustration from her. There was only her
promise to stay with me no matter what happened.
“Her complete and infallible love for me reminds me of the love Jesus
has for us. We are imperfect, but we are loved without exception and
reservation. … Knowing that love is there has made all the difference to
me.”
The loving presence of Gus, a yellow labrador retriever, at Camp
Kirchenwald brought comfort to children who really needed it, wrote
Conrad and Winnie Youse. In his 14 years of life Gus always joined his
owners as summer staff at the Lutheran camp in Colebrook, Pa.
Though as a puppy he often stole clothing from campers and
interrupted games by running off with equipment, Gus matured into an
important staff member, they said, intuitively identifying children who
were homesick and painfully alone. “To those children he licked away
their tears and offered a paw of consolation that could not be refused,”
they wrote.
Gus was not only a counselor but a guide, leading lost groups back to
camp. His behavior, they said, was an example that most Christians
would do well to imitate.
They teach us to pray
Luna the llama taught Susan Dahl the importance of looking to God
during times of trouble. Dahl and Luna live on a farm with other animals
outside of St. Charles, Minn.
When Luna’s baby died after she gave birth, the llama “looked up to
the heavens and cried a loud piercing cry, as if to say, ‘Why God?’ It
was at that moment I truly believed that animals also turn to God at
their time of need,” Dahl wrote.
For Stewart McDonald, a pastor in Tucson, Ariz., Fanny, his cat of 19
years, helped him take up the discipline of contemplative prayer.
One morning McDonald struggled to get started with contemplative
prayer. “Then I noticed Fanny, curled up in my lap, totally relaxed. It
was as if she was in heaven,” he wrote. “She led me to imagine what it
would be like for me to sit on the lap of God, curled up like Fanny,
totally relaxed. It worked!”
Becky Rische of Spicewood, Texas, believes her dog Cooper answers
prayer. “He doesn’t do this alone, of course. God works through him,”
she said.
He has introduced Rische to countless new neighbors and helps her see
the best in others. “Consequently I pay attention,” she wrote, “because
my dog can be one channel where God speaks.
They come to our rescue
When Ophelia came into Steve Poindexter’s life in 1999, he was in a
rough place mentally and emotionally. Encouraged by his niece who had
found the kitten at the veterinary clinic in Tulsa, Okla., Poindexter
adopted Ophelia. The kitten was also in rough shape—she had been
neglected and had recently undergone surgery for a broken hip.
Over time the two developed a deep bond. “Although my faith was
somewhat tenuous at the time, I came to realize I was witnessing a small
glimpse of God’s love for all creation through our relationship,” he
wrote. “Seventeen years later … I see clearly now that I never actually
rescued her, but rather she rescued me.”
Dooley the dog literally rescued Karen Yagher. At 2 a.m., Yagher woke
up with searing pain in her back and headed downstairs for a glass of
water and aspirin. Dooley followed.
“It’s OK, buddy dog,” she told him, “I’m just going to rest for a
while.” That was the last thing Yagher remembered before waking up in
the hospital. She was being treated for a bacterial infection that had
destroyed several of her spinal vertebrae.
Later she found out that Dooley had stayed by her side, but at some
point he became alarmed and ran upstairs to wake Yagher’s husband, who
found her lying on the living room floor. He called for an ambulance
right away.
Had her husband found her an hour or two later, the doctors said she
would have died. “I don’t know why this happened to me, but I do know
God used Dooley to save me that day,” Yagher wrote. “Dooley, my good and
faithful friend, died last year. … He was more than just a dog, he was
my guardian angel.”
They connect us to God
While recovering from her second cancer surgery, Jane McKinley of
Lakewood, N.J., found it difficult to keep the faith. McKinley’s
months-long, painful recovery left her confined to one room in her
house.
Visitors came and went, but Rollie, her golden retriever, was a
constant companion. “Rollie would come in every day, a little spring to
his step, panting with excitement, eyes full of joy. I noticed after a
while that my heart was beginning to feel his joy,” she wrote. “For the
first time in a long while I was able to find God. … Rollie had been my
angel. I don’t know if I could have made that connection without him.”
Jonah the cairn terrier also helped his owner, Herbert Chilstrom of
Green Valley, Ariz., connect with God. The former ELCA presiding bishop
wrote My Friend Jonah and Other Dogs I’ve Loved (Huff, 2014),
where he recounted the day he and his wife took 17-year-old Jonah to be
put down: “I held Jonah’s head in my big hands and leaned close to his
ear. In a strong voice I said for the last of a thousand times, ‘Jonah,
you’re a good boy.’ The doctor administered the fatal dosage. His head
fell into my hands.”
At Jonah’s grave site that day, Chilstrom reflected on life beyond
this world: “Is there more to life than the brief time we spend together
here in this corner of God’s universe? Then I say, ‘Yes, I believe
there is.’
“Thanks, Jonah, for teaching me how to live—and how to die.”
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