God teaches us about “Unconditional Love”

AM+DG

A little digression from our regular articles…

I received an email this morning and thought I’d share it.

“RemnantchildofMary” commented:

Hey David! I absolutely loved the piece you wrote. A long time ago I was reflecting on why we grieve when we lose a dog who is our pet. I think it is because the dog’s love is unconditional or at least it feels so- is reminds us of the love of God the Father.

God created animals and particularly dogs as companions for men so that they may always feel His unconditional love and be reminded of it. Also there are people who do not marry or cannot marry and therefore, again, they are an example of unconditional love for them – a special reminder of God’s daily love. God’s Hand is in all creation and we should appreciate His Handiwork!

David wrote:

“Here is something I was inspired to write this morning after being awakened very early at 5:45! Our granddaughter has been staying with us this week with her so loving and devoted dog…Hope you enjoy it! Pass it along if you wish.

Why God Created Dogs

Perhaps you are one who no longer believes in God, or at least in a God who is personal and truly loves you. Perhaps you have suffered from so little love in your own personal life it has been difficult for you to believe that a loving God exists, at least for you. In that case it would be   difficult for you to believe what you have been told that “God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son” and that “whoever believes,” especially you, “shall not perish” as it has often seemed like was happening to you, “but have eternal life”?

One thing is certain, if that did happen as they say some 2,000 years ago then you and perhaps millions of others like you who have found love in this life so elusive are not alone in that experience as it was also the dreadful and sorrowful experience of the very Son of God Himself. He also found this world a very unloving place because He was crucified only because He loved us enough to tell us the truth about our need. We know He loved to the utmost degree because of what His stunned followers told us He said as He died while hanging upon His cross He willingly died upon to prove His point, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do!” Could any of us have said that in His place?  Would you?

Could you not now agree that God, who created you, fully understands and feels what you know, that this world can be a very unloving place?  But can you not also see that God Himself has made the greatest possible sacrifice, the sacrifice of His own Son, to actually change things?  How could this change things, you ask?  By His followers practicing what He did in face of their unloving circumstances and promising them eternal reward for them doing so.

But had God abandoned us and any attempts to bring back this love and order into this world until He sent His Son into the world? Absolutely not! The whole of creation following its prescribed order, which was designed to serve man’s every need in this life, proves God’s love and His desire we be just as generous, and loving, requiring our own moral orderliness, toward those around us. The only exceptions in nature to its freely serving mankind are always those caused, or necessitated by man’s own unloving acts of disorder and sin towards one another. 

Now out of all of God’s orderly and self giving creation for man’s benefit and example, one creature seems to stands out. That creature stands out because he is commonly called “Man’s best friend.” There’s a lot in that perception! Perhaps at least a hint that our neighbor has not become what he should be to us! And almost certainly that a dog can be far superior to man in devotion, dedication and serving toward “his superior” than we often are to our Superior!  We could perhaps rightly reason that dogs are so only because they know where their next good meal or treat comes from or because simply that God made them that way, but we cannot escape the fact that dogs are smarter than most of us humans in respect to our Superior!

Does not that reveal so much that lacks within ourselves and mankind in general? And what would all this tell us about God’s never ending attempt and desire to restore us to His level of love and true human moral order?  This is indeed God’s real lesson, though perhaps in a “backwards way,” for what man should be in relation to his Superior and then to one another, and perhaps for that very reason, in God’s amazing providence, man named his best friend “dog” as spelled backwards is “God!”  –DJ Webster

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”  Romans 1:20″