A Prayer of Sorts
Dear Mother Father Source Provider (Howard?) (that last one is from Anne Lamott. Google it if you want to see the whole story),
I wish I was more like my dog.
Who sleeps peacefully on the red couch most of the day. Unless he is hungry. Or it’s time for his evening treat. Or he needs to go out. Or a strange truck has parked in the driveway and a dangerous delivery person is approaching the door. Except for then.
Those interruptions don’t happen that often, though. Mostly, he rests where he can see me. He wakes occasionally, lifts his head, looks for me with his brown eyes, makes sure I am where he left me, which is most likely at the kitchen table, sitting with my computer. Yes, he seems to say. All is still right with the world. Then he goes back to sleep.
In a way, I am Biscuit’s provider; he trusts me. He knows that I will care for him.
I wish I trusted You, my heavenly Mother Father Source Provider (Howard), even a fraction as much as Biscuit trusts me. How much stress and worry I would avoid. How much angst. There is no reason that I could not spend my days (metaphorically, of course) resting on the red couch, content and secure because all is right with the world.
Could I be more like Biscuit? At peace simply because you are near. You promise that nothing can separate me from your love. What more do I need?
It’s amazing that Biscuit trusts me like he does, especially when I am not like you at all. You say you’ll never leave me. Biscuit trusts me like that, but I leave him all the time: when I have to drive to town for work, or for appointments, or even just to meet with a friend on a hot day, when it wouldn’t be safe to leave him in the car.
Biscuit never worries. Biscuit just trusts.
It’s too bad, don’t You think, that no one thought to write down any of Jesus’ stories about dogs, because I am sure that He would have been a dog lover and probably talked about them a time or two. He mentioned sheep, goats, pigs, and flowers, after all. Dogs must have been in there somewhere. Maybe that was part of the Sermon on the Mount that accidentally fell out of the scribe’s folder. Maybe it blew away into a field of lilies.
I can imagine Jesus saying, “Blessed are you who are like your dog, who trust your good Provider in the same way your dog trusts you. Look at your dog! She never worries or frets, but you care for her extravagantly and with deep affection. How much more does your heavenly Provider care for you?”
Here is a short video of Biscuit from our walk the other morning.
This is how I want to go through life. Glancing behind me, knowing you are there, then moving through this world, together on our grand adventure.
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