In the hound, God has gifted man a mighty gift, noble in
concept and execution. When He charged Adam to take dominion over the earth and
all that lies within, there must have been a special place of pride and love in
the Almighty as he placed the hidden joys of the coming domesticated canine
within man’s grasp. Dogs kept as pets bring hope and heartache, joy and sorrow,
and a shadow of the greater joy yet to come for the Christian.
Give no platitudes; maturity and strength do not stem
from falsehood. I find no evidence or support in the scriptures for a soul
within a dog. Hunter is gone now. This crafty and cheerful and stubborn and loyal
Golden Retriever I married into will not be standing in the new kingdom
awaiting our arrival. To have a spirit is the breath of life God has given
exclusively to man, and all of creation and the angels look upon us with wonder.
Yet Hunter is a great gift of God. He is a picture of God’s love; integral to
my wife’s coming of age, a testimony of the living God, and a marker of the
curse of sin.
The bible is clear that the new kingdom to come is free
of death and sorrow. The New Heaven and the New Earth will be rife with the
creatures of creation. Those found within the Book of Life will live for
eternity in the fully realized reality of Jesus, and even the nature of our
pets will change. ‘Pet’ is scarce a word to describe what will be. All of
creation groans under the weight of sin and longs of Christ to return. The dog
we keep as a pet now is a pale yet delightful shadow of the age to come,
groaning and longing himself. Creation, and canines within, will be fully
realized. My relationship will be fully realized. I propose that the barriers
of communication and understanding will be razed. The glimpses of understanding
that we see now are only snatches of the song to come. Maybe in the City of God
I will have a buffalo and an echidna with my Anatolian Shepherd dog, while my
neighbor sips tea upon his caribou.
Hunter, like most pups, had two eyes. At the ripe age of
ten, he developed a wart centered on one pupil. Knowing our budget limit of $400,
Jenny looked at the +$1200 appraisal with dismay. Physically, the rest of his
body was good, the body of a dog three years his junior. Yet every time Hunter looked
at you tail a-wagging, the malignant cornea capper would look right back,
growing in scope and magnitude as the days turned into weeks. Cost effective
remedies unavailable, we discussed euthanasia to cut off the painful process.
One day I noticed a reduction in the growth as I was getting ready for work,
and I texted Jenny about it later, and she agreed it was improving. She had
prayed to Jesus over his eye for healing, and within two days it was completely
healed without any medical attention beyond the initial diagnosis. This afternoon,
as the life within a now thirteen-year-old Hunter faded by injection and old
age, those eyes looked at me from the table. The eyes conveyed pain from kidney
failure, but also a reminder that my God is alive, the Spirit is active, and
Jesus does know us as individuals. God reveals His glory in the 10,000 small joys
in the days of a dog’s life, and the healing that secures hope.
Death comes to both man and beast. It is a gift of God
that our life spans several rounds of our pets. In young life, a puppy is joy
in discovery and the hope that proper training will bring out the full potential.
Youthful energy and a desire to go on walks keep the responsible owner young.
Their vigilance over the bumps that come in the night brings us rest. The slow
and methodical elder age and the resurgence of ‘independent thinking’ are
themselves a reminder of what comes upon man in the twilight years. The death
itself is a consequence of man’s rebellion against providence, the wages of our
sin. Redemption has come for Man by the Christ on the cross. Salvation and new
life are there for those who follow Jesus, but while he waits for the wheat and
the tares to choose and bear fruit, creation suffers. Until judgment and all is
made new creation will continue to suffer. God is sacrificing his good creation
to give us more time to come to Him. One day, perhaps soon, this will end and
man can rejoice fully with creator and creation once again and for all time.
Greater days are yet to come.
Today, Hunter has passed.
Today, I will value Harmon and Sullivan a bit more.
Today, I know God loves us, each as a person and not only
in the collective.
Hunter’s time has come.
May the time of His return come soon.