Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:7-11 NIV
Last week’s Morning Manna inspired this story of another experience with a dog.
My husband Mike and I had a lovely dog we called Chika when we lived in Alberta, Canada. We had been looking for a Border Collie but found a part Blue Heeler and part Border Collie. She had the best of both breeds, which are problem solvers. We got her when she was just a small puppy. Chika was weaned from her mother’s milk when we took her to our acreage. She was taught by whispers and gentle commands and love to trust us and follow our instructions. When it was time for her to go to her own bed that we had made in a kennel, all we needed to do was to whisper, “Chika, time to go to bed,” and she would trot upstairs to her bed. We taught her to stay on our acreage by loving her and talking to her while she was listening to what we said. She was like Mike’s shadow when he worked in the garden. I would even give Chika a dog biscuit to take down to Mike. She would carry it in her mouth to Mike, who would then give it back to her to eat! There was no need for fences, electric or otherwise.
When we moved to Prince Edward Island, our neighbors had a male dog, a Coon hound, and they had an electric invisible fence to keep him on their property. Fred, as he was called, would go as close to the invisible electric fence as he could, looking longingly to the bottom of the garden and wishing to cross the line. We could cross the line without being zapped, and so could Chika because she was not wearing a collar that would react. Chika stayed nicely on our property because we had taught her where she should stay.
Sometimes Fred would pick up the courage, take the weak zap and cross the electric line and run to the bottom of the garden and further. Our neighbor had to chase him all over the place to get him back home. The temptation was sometimes just too great for him to resist!
Chika had grown up in a loving atmosphere of trust. She knew that she was loved and loved us back. We never had to scold or punish her because she obeyed out of love. She knew that she could trust us and we trusted her.
Unless we love God with all our hearts and each other as ourselves, the Ten Commandments as a list of commands will not protect us. The fence is not enough. It is the love that keeps us connected with Jesus and His Father, who is our Father.