A week and a half ago, our family adopted a puppy from the Kingston Humane Society. Nevada is a three month old Siberian Husky mix and we love her.
And just as we anticipated, she’s turned our lives inside out and upside down. My precious early morning routines used to be a combination of coffee, workouts at the gym, silence and solitude, and writing blog posts for The Twelve. Now I find myself between 5:00am and 7:00am in the throes of training my puppy to sleep past 4:30am, to do her business outside instead of inside, to walk with me instead of dragging behind or yanking ahead. (And not writing blog posts for The Twelve!)
I miss the routines that used to anchor me.
But this morning, as I walked with Nevada underneath the Hunger Moon (a walk punctuated with laughter at her accidental slip down my daughters’ snowpile-slide and with the frantic extraction of a frozen dead mouse from her happy jaws), I simply delighted in this new relationship with one of God’s creatures.
Every evening after supper, we sing the Doxology with our girls. The older the kids get, the more harmonies we can find and sustain. It is often my favourite moment of the day. We’ve always had an audience of One for this nightly song, but now, in some ways, we have an audience of Two. Or, rather, we have an expanded choir. We sing, keenly aware that there are now six creatures in this house joining with all the heavenly host to bring God praise.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
PRAISE HIM, ALL CREATURES HERE BELOW;
Praise him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.
Aw, Heidi, a frozen dead mouse in her happy mouth is nothing in comparison to what she’ll try in coming years to consume! And sometimes she’ll get it past your reach even before you’ve been able to identify that most recent snack. But it’s worth every minute. Dogs don’t live long enough, but they do live forever and all three of mine are waiting to leap into my lap and slobber all over my face. Blessings and thanks.
Love this. Thanks for the reminder that God is praised by all of His creation.
Our hound used to sing with us (howl). Does your pup do that? Our dog didn’t know the doxology, but she did know Bach’s Mass in B Minor. JK. She knew “Happy Birthday.”
Psalm 104 is variously translated, “Leviathan, whom you formed to frolic in it”, Leviathan, whom you formed to frolic in it”, Leviathan whom you formed to play in it (the sea).”
Some Hebrew scholars have proposed that the verse can be translated, “The whales, whom you formed to play with”!
God loves all his creatures and takes delight in each of them – “two sparrows sold for a penny” “…even a sparrow has made her nest there – to be near thy altar.”
It matters how we treat them.
Philippians 3:2