Man’s Best Friend Is…
Their loyalty, affection and devotion are second to none. They become valued members of our family. We love the eyes of a dog, its expression, the warmly wagging tail and cold damp nose. Most dog owners sign their pet’s name on greeting cards, and many name them in their will.
But who is ‘man’s best friend’?
There are over 800 breeds of dog, each with their unique personalities and features. Think of the heigh of the Great Dane or Irish Wolfhound, or the speed of the Greyhound running at up to 45 miles an hour, or the intelligence of the Scottish Border Collie and the Afghan’s lack of it, or the Bloodhound’s ability to distinguish several scents, some days old. A dog’s sense of smell is 1,000 times better than a human’s.
But are dogs really ‘man’s best friend’?
And who says that dogs can’t communicate? We know when they are saying: ‘I want to be walked’, ‘I need to water the flowers’, ‘There’s someone at the door’, ‘I want you to play with me’, and ‘I don’t like being the only one awake’.
We love our dogs. In the USA and UK the Labrador retriever, which actually originated in Newfoundland, is the most popular breed.
It’s often said ‘man’s best friend is his dog’ but is this the whole truth? Dogs are mostly ignorant and uncritical of our failings. What if there was a friend, who knows us even better than we know ourselves, who is aware of all our failings, yet still loves us?
Dogs have short-ish lives. On average they live for about 15 years, though an Australian cattle-dog named Bluey lived to be 29 years and 5 months. What if there was a never-dying Friend who promises never to leave us, and to take us to be with Him forever?
Dogs are wonderful friends, but there is someone even better.
Dogs have achieved amazing things. The first living creature to orbit the earth was a dog named Laika. Blasted into space on 3 Nov 1957, she had no way to be brought back and died a few hours later. St. Bernards were trained by monks to locate and rescue lost travellers. One, called Barry (bone in 1800) rescued 40 people in the snow before he died in 1815. Siberian Huskies have been used to pull sledges and herd reindeer in Siberia for 3,000 years. They have acted as guards for buildings and people. The Dobermann is named after a German tax collector in the 1860s who created the breed to protect him!
There is a friend who knows all about us.
There is a Friend who has brought everything into being, who keeps all His creation ticking over, who knows all that is going on, who sniffs out all that is wrong, and is willing to guard and protect us through life and into eternity.
During the excavation of Pompeii, the Roman city destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79, archaeologists uncovered the body of a dog lying across a child, as if to protect it. Sadly, both perished. Just a few decades earlier, almighty God had come into our world in the person of Jesus. He gave His life, but not in vain. When He died on the cross, He who knew all our sin, took it all on Himself and paid the penalty of it as He died in our place. He did what no one else could: died because He loved us, was buried, then rose from the dead three days later.
We love dogs. We have a special place for them, as is illustrated even in our most loved stories and adverts. Think of Bill Sykes’ Bullseye, or Timmy in the Famous Five, Toto in the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Lassie, the 101 Dalmatians, the Dulux dog, and the Andrex Puppy.
Jesus us totally real. He is ‘the Friend of sinners’, and will take us as we are but then not leave us as we are. He is willing to forgive our sin, and become our living Lord and Saviour.
It’s great to love God’s creatures; it is greater still to know and love the Creator.
A man, and a woman’s, best Friend is Jesus. Ask Him to make you His today and forever.
