Losing Duchess

In 2009, we lost our beloved dog, Duchess. I had no idea it could be so difficult to lose an animal. During the preceding six years she had become like a family member, as any pet owner will understand.

Duchess was a mutt from the animal shelter. They told us she was about three years old, but we learned from the vet that she must have been at least six. A mix of ridgeback, beagle, American Staffordshire terrier, and perhaps Chinese shar pei, she was a California classic.

She snored like a dishwasher. She finished each beagle howl with a sneeze. If no one had time to walk her, she knew how to slip out of the house and take her own walk, thank you very much. Once, she watched with disappointment when I slung the leash back onto its hanger, after getting her hopes up. I had received an email that couldn’t wait. Duchess turned her back to me and lay down, facing the corner. She stretched her paws self-righteously in front, and raised her nose in the air, and would not look at me. She was clearly disgusted with my rudeness.

Some pets are a God-send. Duchess helped my children and me through the darkest parts of our post-divorce valley. We’d leaned on her, and somehow she had never let us slip. I’d often felt alone. People sometimes failed us, but Duchess was a place-holder of love in our family.

Do I believe pets go to Heaven? I surely wanted to during those first agonizing weeks after she left. I researched the question, and my conclusion was that, even though the Bible isn’t specifically clear on it, I think they do. “Behold, I make all things new,” Jesus tells us in Revelation 21:5. That includes his creation, and animals are a part of it. Whatever he does with our beloved pets, I am certain we can trust him. He is the author of love.

Here’s the SmileBox I made when she passed away. Turn the sound up and grab a tissue. And please, enjoy your pets while you have them. They’re a gift from Heaven.

Click here: In Memoriam Duchess

Boredom's Greatest Foe

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. – Ecclesiastes 1:9

God is love. – 1 John 4:8

My kids rarely complain of being bored. They know Mom always has a chore available!

I thought about boredom when I encountered several voices from the past recently. First, my mom handed me a pile of dusty old drawings and writing – my schoolwork! Emily was amused to read my excessively melodramatic horse stories. I’m glad she has a better grasp on reality than I did at 12! Next, my sister forwarded a real estate ad for the house we grew up in, now on the market. It was a decent track home whose back yard still borders the emerald-green, tree-lined  fields that surround the town. And then, using Netflix, my kids showed me the old British TV series, Dr. Who. Watching the familiar “tardis” time machine fly through a swirling, ‘70’s wormhole, I was transported back in time myself, to a blue-carpeted living room and the rich smell of a fish n’ chips dinner.

It seemed a little repetitive. My daughter’s life is a lot like mine. She writes horse stories and watches Dr. Who, just as I did. Whoever lives in my childhood home enjoys the same views, walks the same stairs, tends the same garden. Dr. Who has been updated, but it’s still Dr. Who. In fact, for thousands of years, 12 year old girls have been writing horse stories, dads have remodeled the family home, and families have gathered for entertainment. We grow up, fall in love, have children, watch our children learn and grow, get a career, move to a new town, retire, and then our children repeat it all. Then there are the troubles – wars, famine, tyrants replaced by tyrants, broken relationships, natural disasters, again and again. King Solomon was right – there’s nothing new under the sun!

I wondered, does God ever get, well… bored?

Obviously not. Scripture reveals him as many things – passionate, jealous, loving, righteous, pure, and much more – but not once does Scripture describe him as bored. Why not?

After all, he has to watch the same story, with slight variations, over and over again; yet he remains passionately involved and interested, intimately acquainted with all our ways, attentive to our prayers and cries for help, always offering himself as the answer to any need, rejoicing when anyone turns to him, grieving over our sins and mistakes. What’s the fuel for all that passion?

“God is love,” declares 1 John 4:8. If you have kids, you know you’d never get bored with your children, even though they each go through basically the same stages of development. Sure, my first child is a wonder, and I watch his every accomplishment with awe. But, even though I’ve seen it before, I’m no less thrilled by the progress of my second and third children. I love them all! I’ll always be passionately interested in everything they do and everything that touches them. That gives me an inkling of how powerful God’s love is. It’s like the love I have for my children, multiplied billions of times over, to include every person who’s ever lived.

But God’s love is far higher than mine. It’s unsullied by selfish motives. It’s tireless. It’s totally faithful and reliable. It’s all-powerful and all-inclusive. It has the power to forgive the gravest offense. It transforms the sinner. It transcends the impossible. It never gives up. It doesn’t flinch in the face of suffering. It’s insanely passionate, yet soothingly reasonable and wise.

It’s an ocean.

He will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. – Zephaniah 3:17