Values-Driven

We have three pets…and in a middle-of-the-night spiritual revelation of sorts, Marc saw how each of them reflects distinct potential relationships that we human beings can have with our Lord. He told me I should blog about it, so I’ll do my best.

First, there’s Jeeber, a beautiful calico cat who LOVES people and is a sweet lap cat. One problem with Jeeber: lately, she smells. (Remember the song “Smelly Cat” from the show “Friends”? We sing it a lot here. The kids have no clue what we’re talking about. Anyway…)

Jeeber would love nothing more than to sit in Marc’s lap all day. He’s been working on his laptop a lot and she’s constantly approaching him to be pet. More often than not, though, the stench makes him push her away. (Just being real here, folks.) When we have our family devotional time, she tries to jump in his lap, and the same thing happens. Nothing like that kind of interruption to your family devotions.

We’ve tried to remediate the problem by adding some probiotics and chlorophyll to her food. That does seem to help, but we don’t always remember to do it. So, until further notice, this cat who wants nothing more than to bask in our presence is relegated to remote places.

Next up, “Jo’s Cat.” Yes, that’s actually his name. Jo’s cat doesn’t have the smell problem, and he often finds a spot to sleep at the foot of our bed. Marc would really like to pick him up and love on him a little bit. However, when Marc tries to move him up to hold him and fluff him up, Jo’s cat simply extricates himself and moves on–either back to the foot of the bed or into another room. This cat is stubbornly independent.

Finally, there’s our dog, Jireh. She’s your typical dog–she’s being trained to be obedient, and she really wants to obey to please us. She’s still a puppy, though, so sometimes her puppy nature gets the better of her and she doesn’t obey. Even so, she wants to…because she loves us. She is happy to jump on the couch and get pet. She’ll even get in the bed with us if we let her. Everyone knows that dogs are a man’s best friend! But it wouldn’t be the same if she couldn’t be trained to obey some basic commands.

All of which illustrate the potential responses we can have to the Lord:

Jeeber: Love and a desire to commune…but with the stench of sin that makes it impossible for God to tolerate our presence. Easily cleaned up from the inside out, but we have to submit to it and sustain the healthy balance.

Jo’s Cat: Independence. We’ll come close on our terms. Not a bad creature…but missing the desire to draw close. So we remain distant from God.

Jireh: A desire to commune and willing obedience. A winning combination! No, we’re not always perfectly obedient. But we’re constantly working on it, and we’ll receive discipline when it comes because we know it’s for our good, to train us in essential areas.

Of these three, I think that God wants us all to be like dogs. 🙂