Learning to Love Like Pups

Pups has been teaching me so much about my relationship with God in the past week. Pups’ genuine love for me has caused me to evaluate my heart for God.

After being at school for a few months, I came home on Friday for Thanksgiving Break to the warmest welcome home I have ever experienced. Pups was going absolutely ballistic, running in circles and jumping up and down and barking because he could not contain his excitement. He was jumping on the furniture, doing laps through the house, and just wanting me to hold him or touch him or pet him. Literally all week long, he has been all over me. He sleeps in my bed, with his little paws wrapped tightly around me. He listens to everything I say. If I tell him to move to a different spot on the bed, he obeys because he knows that it will please me. He so desperately wants to please me, not because he's to earn anything for himself, but simply because he loves me so much. He isn’t trying to earn an extra bone or a longer walk in the morning. He just loves me, and wants to be obedient to me out of love. He follows me around the house, never wanting to leave my side. It’s honestly hard for me to leave home, because he cries and whines and looks at me with these sad puppy dog eyes and watches me through the window as I pull out. Even from the end of the driveway, I can see that sad look in his eyes as I drive off without him. He wants nothing more than to be in my presence. He wants to come in the car. He doesn’t care where we are going, he just wants to be there with me. It’s really the sweetest dang thing. It’s the most genuine, unconditional love.

These things clearly reflect a person’s relationship with God. Do we genuinely love Him? Do we long to be in His presence? Do we jump up and down with excitement over spending time with Him? If someone looked at our lives, would it be clear based on your daily life that you love Him?

When I take hPups running, he completely trusts me. He stays by my side, and trusts that where I am taking him is safe. We run through the neighborhood, through parks, across busy streets, up and down and back through trails. If I were to run in front of a car, he would be right by my side. He trusts me without hesitation. And it is true, I love him back, and am looking out for his best interest. Sometimes, he doesn’t want to stop at the crosswalk. He wants to just keep going! But sometimes, there’s a car whipping around the corner, and it’s not safe to keep going. He wants to get to the other side of the street, which looks like so much fun, but the path to get there is not safe yet. I hold him back. For him, at the time, he might not understand why I would make him stop running and ruin the fun, but he trusts me anyway. I keep him on a leash because I love him, not because I am trying to make running a little bit less fun for him or because I enjoy restraining his freedom. I love him and want to make sure he is safe!

Do we trust God completely? Are we ok with being put on a “leash” if that means that God is keeping us safe? Do we trust Him that His prevention of certain ‘fun’ things in our lives is for our benefit? Do we stay right at our Master’s side, or do we try with all our might to break the leash?  

Sometimes I take him outside to play without a leash on. I generally take him somewhere safe, not near a busy highway or something crazy. But when he doesn't have the leash on, I have to trust that he will listen to my commands. If there is a car coming, I'll probably back up quite a bit and tell him to sit and stay. But it is still his choice to obey this command or disobey this command. He had the freedom to run in front of the car. Maybe there's a squirrel on the other side of the street, and it looks like so much fun to go chase that squirrel for a minute. That temptation is there. I'm not telling him to sit and stay to ruin his fun of chasing the squirrel, I'm giving him these commands because they are in his own best interest. He might not have the ability to realize that at the moment. He might not have the ability to realize that ever. But that doesn't make it any less true.

We, too, have the freedom to obey or disobey God. His commands for us are for our own best interest. He knows that sin will destroy our lives. It brings only bad things for us. Sometimes, it may seem that the sinful decision is more fun, kind of like chasing the squirrel. But God tells us to stay, because there just might be a car racing around the corner that we cannot see because our eyes are glued to that squirrel (or any temptation). God doesn't give us commands to ruin our lives and prevent us from having fun. On the contrary, He loves us that much. We might not have the ability to realize that He sees something that we can't see (like the car), and that He is protecting us from it. We have to trust Him, that His commands for us are because He truly loves us. 

Every time I walk in the door, even if I’ve only been gone for an hour, or for 15 minutes, Pups greets me with excitement. His love is so genuine! He jumps up on me and nuzzles my hands because he is genuinely excited to be with me! If this were just a routine, however, I wouldn’t feel the love. If I trained him to stand up and walk over to me and bark three times and lick my hand, and he did this every time I walked in the door, I wouldn’t feel the love. Although these actions might look similar on the outside, the heart behind them is completely different, and the Master feels the genuine love that comes from the heart.

Do we “spend time” with God out of a true desire of our heart to meet with Him? Or are we in a routine where we have been “trained” to read our Bibles for 15 minutes every morning or say a thirty-second prayer before we eat? God doesn’t care about worthless deeds, He cares about our hearts behind them.

Here’s another what-if scenario. Let’s say that every time I came home, Pups was excited to see me and showed me all kinds of affection. Feeling the love, I wanted to reward him in return. I was not obligated to, but I wanted to. So I started giving him a Milkbone after he greeted me at the door. After a few weeks, let’s pretend that Pups started to like the Milkbone more than he liked me. Even though I’m the one who bought the Milkbone from the store, brought it home, opened the bag, and put it in his mouth. All of that came from me. When I got home, he was no longer excited about seeing me, he was excited about me giving him the Milkbone. He started to love the gifts I provided more than he loved me for myself. This would be very hurtful to me! If I stopped providing the Milkbone, would he still love me? Or would he feel as though I had removed something from his life that he “deserved?”

Are we obedient to Him because we love Him, or because we want rewards for ourselves? Are we obedient to Him at all? Do we “spend time” with Him out of a true desire of our heart to meet with Him? Or are we more in love with Creation than the Creator?

Food for thought. Shout out to Pups for being the best and most snuggly dog ever.