Peanut The Poodle

Peanut the Poodle

This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Peanut is a scruffy little brown dog, a doggie senior citizen who is blind and going deaf, but who hasn’t let either of those facts stop him from happily roaming our house seeking snuggles and warm places to nap.

Peanut’s favorite human is my daughter, and his snuggly presence has been a constant in Lizzie’s life since just before kindergarten. It is into his furry ears that she has poured out her heartaches and dreams, yearnings and jubilation, and worries and successes as she has navigated her entire elementary school career. And it is on her bed that he sleeps every night, hogging most of her pillow.

Theirs is a friendship that runs deep, transcending species and language. On hard days, his wholehearted, unconditional doggie love has comforted and soothed her, sometimes in ways that even the unconditional love of Mom and Dad—who are human and therefore imperfect—has not been able to. There is something about the always-happy-to-see-you, I’ll-lick-you-when-you-are-sad-no-matter-what presence Peanut provides for Lizzie that gives me the tiniest glimpse of God’s agape love that says, “I love you, no matter what.”

I sometimes wonder if pet-human friendships are a better reflection of God’s unconditional love for us than our own human relationships are. Peanut’s love is not complicated with expectations, and it is unhindered by the baggage we tend to drag into human marriages and friendships. Peanut loves Lizzie. There is no comma, no qualifier added to that sentence.

God’s love for us is the same, increased a million multitudes of times. Unconditional. Unwavering. Unstoppable. And, frankly, rather unfathomable given our fickle hearts and wayward behavior. As I asked God what that crazy kind of love looks like one quiet afternoon, my mind’s eye saw Peanut and Lizzie. While that might sound crazy to those who don’t own pets, it spoke to my heart in a powerful way. And now I’m reminded of God’s love for me as I watch Peanut seek out Lizzie.

— Julie

— Today’s Act of Friendship —

Ask God to reveal tiny glimpses of his agape love for you in your daily life, so that you would have a constant reminder of his unwavering, unstoppable, unfathomable love.