DOG and GOD

Many years ago when I was teaching in Miles (Queensland country town), I got my first dog as a giveaway from the Miles show: a German shepherd/boxer-cross called Jesse. Beautiful dog, but an incredibly destructive puppy. One work day, I accidentally left the back door open, and Jesse got into the house. I doubt that dynamite would have made more mess. She pulled all the sheets off the bed, chewed up my good shoes, knocked over tables, ate a few pages out of my bible, ripped my good trousers, broke my clock radio. She was a whirlwind!

When I was telling the cleaner at the school about it the next day, (a retired farmer) he said, “If you want my advice, I’d shoot her. Dog like that’s trouble. Need to shoot a dog like that.”

Naturally I was horrified. I said, “I don’t want to shoot my dog, I love my dog.” And as I uttered those words, I realised something about God's love. It doesn’t depend on the one being loved, it depends on the one doing the loving. My love for my dog isn’t about whether she’s good or bad, its about me, about the fact that I love dogs. God’s love for us isn’t about how appealing we can make ourselves to him, instead it relies on him being a loving God, whose very core and nature is love.