My husband Paul and I had a “companion animal” (as it is called now) for 17 years.
Sylvester was black and white with perfect markings, named for the cartoon character. He was a feisty little creature, always attempting to be the “alpha male” in our household, despite his small size and essential vulnerability.
I was his maid, tending to his food, water, and litter; Paul received Sylvester’s love.
Sylvester eagerly anticipated Paul’s early return from teaching, earlier than my library work concluded. In Minnesota, space heaters were mandatory against the cold, and Paul and Sylvester cuddled in our TV room with both basking in the warmth. After a while on Paul’s lap, Sylvester had had enough loving, and he settled down beside Paul on our sofa.
Then it was nap time, for both man and beast.
This scene played out every day. Never varied. And the love was palpable.
Pets give unconditional love, especially dogs, I think, but also cats. We know when we are grown that the love we have known from our surroundings is not always so pure. Human beings sometimes “give to get,” and this is the summation of conditionality. We know from our church and Sunday school that God loves us unconditionally, though the words may have been expressed differently. Unfortunately, we don’t always believe, thinking that we have to be “good,” or “do good works,” or “have enough faith” for God to accept us with His wholehearted love.
Perhaps we need a reminder about unconditional love, and our pets are sometimes our best teachers. If a being with limited intelligence can love so completely, how much more must the Lord of the Universe love us? After all, God created those lovable pet beings. And we learn something more, too, when we are pet owners. We learn that we too can love those very pets with unconditional love. So they are teaching us something to transfer to the human beings in our surroundings.
Human beings need to be forgiven if their love sometimes lacks completeness. These human beings don’t realize that love in our world needs to be perfected. Often with large egos, the people in our midst withdraw from us or fight back when threatened or hurt. Forgiveness is needed in our world. Forgiveness and love.
So beings who walk with two legs are complicated creatures, but we have the potential to recognize that there is a God over us who watches and helps. We don’t know how much of ultimate reality a pet can actually know. But, as I have indicated, our pets know how to love us. And, as I have indicated, we find ourselves able to love back, unconditionally.
Forgiveness is even easier, when a pet chews up a bedroom slipper, for example. After all, they are just dogs and cats, and don’t know any better. Would that we could see the need in our human companions, for the truth is that everybody does the best he or she can, given their level of understanding at the time. Everyone has struggled, maybe rarely or maybe often.
The struggle ceases when we are feeling the Love that God planted in our minds and hearts. For fleeting moments—sometimes longer—we know peace, and it is indeed possible that this is God’s greatest gift to us—His peace, the “peace which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7, KJV).
Let our pets teach us how to love them. And then realize that the humans in our surroundings may need our love in more ways than we can imagine. God placed love in our minds and hearts, a gift for love which we might sometimes have let drop from sight.
All creatures are of God. And in unconditional love of creatures great and small we find our way home to Him.
Love often, and love well. There is no better way to live.
—Celia Hales
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