Last week, my parent's puppy put a couple of holes in my fingers while we were playing. Those healed up nicely just in time for one of his teeth to tear a gash in that same hand last night, again while we were playing. The little guy is not doing it on purpose, but we are all counting the days until he loses his razor sharp baby teeth. Moral of the story: Do not play with the puppy if you do not want to see blood. Second moral of the story: Love hurts.
I know that I have talked about the puppy in reference to joy before, but I am going to do it again. I think that a dog's outlooks on life can teach us a lot about ourselves, especially in our relationship with God, but that's another sermon for another day. Today I am going to tell you about Tucker in the garden.
A few days ago I went over to my parent's house to pick up a few things, and eventually my mom, Tucker, and I all ended up outside. My parent's have a raised garden bed and my mom and I were sitting on the edge of it. Tucker absolutely loves jumping on top of the garden, and before long he joined us up there. First of all he was lying in the dirt chewing on his stick. Then he started rolling around until he was covered in dust and leaf debris. You could tell that he was just as happy as a clam. Once the rolling was completed he started working on a hole that was half-finished in the corner. He would dig a little bit, then lay in the hole and bury his face in the dirt, decide that it needed to be a little bigger and dig some more, and then repeat the laying down and head burying with some sneezing intermingled when dirt got in his nose. I enjoyed just watching him.
Tucker's life is not complicated; his main objectives at this point are to be a dog who provides companionship, protection and entertainment and to not destroy things that he is not supposed to. Simply enough, but with two important lessons for us. Lesson number one: Tucker doesn't fight who he is or his purpose in life, even though it's not that exciting. He doesn't question why he was put in that house with that backyard or why he has to eat that food, or why he can't be a guide dog or a dog with a more important job in life. Um, do I ever do that? Lesson number two: Tucker thinks that everything in his world is interesting, exciting, and fun to play with. You can tell that he truly enjoys life. Yesterday when I was putting a band-aid on my hand Tucker was watching me like I was about to reveal the secret of the universe. I wish I could live with that much enthusiasm for EVERYTHING.
I love dogs, and I love the lessons that I learn from dogs. I could probably write a book on them. Maybe one day I will.
May you find joy in learning from your pets.
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