God Loves His Creatures

I’m resting on the couch, when Baxter, my rambunctious and loving Westie, looks up at me for reassurance. He’d been barking again; he loves to run out the doggie door and yelp at any noise he hears or any cat, bird, or squirrel he sees. This upsets my neighbor; a guy that I’m guessing suffers from some kind of PTSD. Every time Baxter runs out and barks, I open the door; point the pink spray bottle of water and command, “NO BARKS, BAXTER!” As he pauses now by the couch and presses close to me, his look tells me, “I am a good dog, aren’t I. You love me, don’t you?”

I put my arms around him and hug him. “I love you very much Baxter!” At that moment, a quiet voice in my mind speaks these words, “If you can love your dog that much, and you are a human, how much do you think God can love all his creatures (even those who do not believe)?” I’ve struggled all my life with a trust in God’s love. I grew up in churches whose message was a limited love of God. “If you believe in Jesus, then you are safe from Hell. Otherwise, you are condemned.” I appreciated that God loved  me and loved the world.  I endeavored to “share his love with others” so they would be safe from his judgment.

Eventually, that just did not work for me. I read a book Love Wins by Rob Bell that made the case for a divine love that reaches all. Toward the end of the book, he asks the question, “Does God become somebody totally different the moment you die?” He’d been talking about the traditional message that upon a person’s death, God’s love and concern turns to condemnation. Then he made this statement: “And that is the secret deep in the heart of many people, especially Christians; they don’t love God. They can’t because the God they’ve been presented with and taught about can’t be loved. That God is terrifying and traumatizing and unbearable.”

“Oh wow! That’s so true!” I realized. It’s only in the last six or seven years that I’ve begun to consider that God’s love is inclusive, not exclusive. As I’ve worked through this issue, I had a dream one night. A bus stopped in front of my house and I was boarding to reach a destination. “What about the kids?” I asked. “Will there be buses for them?” One person hesitatingly answered that there would be. I could tell he wasn’t sure. I arrived at some kind of convention center where other buses were pulling in. As I disembarked, I looked with surprise. Bus after bus was arriving, more than I could count. No one was being left behind. All were being brought in. It reminds me of this verse:

All the ends of the earth

will remember and turn to the

Lord

and all the families of the nations

will bow down before him (Psalm 22:27NIV).

Not long ago, I came across a verse and recorded it in a notebook:

On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken (Isaiah 25:7-9 NIV).

This is so profound. There is a shroud that enfolds many people, hiding God’s love from them. He will remove it. There is a sheet that blinds them. He will remove it. Death will be banished. Tears will be wiped away. I like that.

 

Author's Note

This story appears in my second book, What Remains Behind (available on Amazon). It's part of a collection of reflections during a faith crisis in chapter 19.

Reviews

[barleygirl]

Your point of view is so unexpected & so different from anything I've thought about! I have always considered that pets have been sent here to show us what it looks like & feels like to be loved unconditionally . . . not just to illustrate the completeness of God's love, but also to help us learn to develop a more complete love toward other humans (((HUGS)))

[Shelley Warner]

I'm glad it gave you another point of view to consider. It's important to me that the viewpoint that I grew up with is not the only one out there. Yes, pets are there to teach us. Thank you for reveiwing.

[Miss Sharon]

( “If you can love your dog that much, and you are a human, how much do you think God can love all his creatures (even those who do not believe)?” SO true! I like this post very much. I too am so very grateful for God's unconditional love for me! ~Sharon

[Shelley Warner]

Oh thanks for reading this Miss Sharon. You are the first to comment on it.

[Shelley Warner]

Note: the book is a grief recovery book. It tells what remains in my life after the loss of my husband. The title of the book comes from one of my favorite poems by William Wordworth.