The Gospel According to Millie

My friends Tim and Kristina have a Yorkie named Misha that looks like an Ewok from Star Wars. My friends James and Nikki have an adorable Cavalier King Charles named Zoey that I have to confess I have been tempted to steal. I can’t say much about Steve and Kim’s rat other than to wonder who sinned, Steve or his parents, that he was born allergic to dogs. Animals play an important role in our lives as teachers. This is biblical. Proverbs 6:6 tells us, “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” Leeches, ravens, eagles, serpents, ants, rock badgers, locusts, lizards, lions, and roosters are among our teachers in Proverbs 30. Three of my best teachers were dogs. 

Noel was a scruffy little Schnauzer who taught me the power of welcoming people who may feel awkward and out of place. Kelly was a black Labrador Retriever who loved to sit with me for long periods of time. She would rather be with me than her own kind. She taught me about lingering in the presence of God and being at peace in the presence of the One who is Wholly Other than me. My current teacher is a tricolor Aussalier named Millie. She has never met a stranger, and she is a terrible guard dog because she thinks everyone is a friend that wants to rub her belly. While I will not be offering my belly to anyone for a rub, I do find myself regularly praying, “Lord, teach me to love people the way Millie does.” 

I realize dogs sometimes appear in negative contexts in the Bible, though they are not listed as ritually unclean animals. There is archaeological evidence from the skeletal remains found within the Levant that the domestication of dogs did not happen until the Persian (559-331 BC) and Hellenistic (323-30 BC) periods within Israel. The historical setting of the Old Testament ranges between 1500 – 400 BC, so their context predates the domestication of dogs in their area. Over time Jews began to view dogs more positively, as can be seen in the second-century B.C. book of Tobit. Tobit, a devout and wealthy Israelite living among the captives deported to Nineveh from the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722/721 B.C., suffers severe reverses and is finally blinded. Because of his misfortunes he begs the Lord to let him die. But recalling the large sum he had deposited in faraway Media, he sends his son Tobias there to bring back the money, accompanied by the angel Raphael and the family dog, “The young man went out, and the angel went with him, and the dog came out with him and went along with them. So they both journeyed along, and when the first night overtook them they camped by the Tigris River” (Tobit 6:1–2, NRSV). 

Other ancient authors began to observe that dogs know to elevate an injured leg, just as Hippocrates prescribed. They also observed that dogs know what plants to eat as medicine to induce vomiting if they have eaten something that upsets their stomach and that dogs know to lick their wounds to ensure it remains clean and will heal more quickly. Dogs began to be associated with healing as a physician of the animal kingdom. Dogs appear in the cult of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine. Sacred dogs, living in the god’s temples, would lick visitors’ injuries. Their tongues apparently soothed and healed wounds. Perhaps this gives insight into the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). While the rich man could not be bothered to offer mercy and aid to this destitute man, a dog had compassion on Lazarus, providing company and licking his sores to bring relief and remedy. The dog was teaching compassion, but the rich man would not listen. 

You do not need to rush out and get a dog, but I do want to encourage you to slow down and listen to God’s voice through his creation, be it a dog, a cat, a gerbil, and yes, even a rat. Hurry, rush, time crunches, FOMO, and the love of exhaustion and busyness rob us of the simple joys of welcome, presence, and love. Thank you, Noel, Kelly, and Millie, for teaching this to me. I am a better person because of you.