Puppy Love

2 weeks before Christmas, we adopted a puppy.  She's a 4 month old terrier mix named Toffee. Let me just tell you, nobody can love like a puppy.  She may be the only creature on the planet who loves my husband as ridiculously as I do.  (His mom is close but she has two more girls to love, and for Toffee, he is the entire universe).

When he shuts the bedroom door she lays in front of it.  When he calls, she comes (even if she's slipped out without her leash).  When he fusses at her, the stars have fallen from the sky. Even if he's only been gone an hour, the extravagance of her welcome would put boy band fangirls to shame.

I don't know if it's the fact that he is obviously the pack leader at our house, or if it's that he was the one who picked her up and took her home, but she LOVES him.

Watching her I am reminded of the first commandment. 

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5

There's a reason that Jesus names this the single most important commandment in the entire law.  When we get this straight, everything else falls into place.

If I ever loved God properly, I'd never hesitate to do anything he asked. Obedience would be my sweetest pleasure.  Pleasing him would be my highest joy, and if I thought I might have hurt him, I would be crawling on my belly back to show him how sorry I was. 

I'd never choose anything else over a chance to be with Him.  I'd never choose anyone else's praise over His. 

I'd remember everyday that I was rescued, redeemed, and beloved.

Toffee pours all that love on to my fallible husband.  She adores and is adored, but he is only human.  He might have a grouchy day, forget something or neglect to pet her at just the right moment.  He loves her with a human love and certainly not the way he loves us, his human family.

But God? He deserves every bit of love we can pour out to him.  We could write an entire book on the way that he loves us.

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:9-10)

That's the God we love.  He not only created the Universe, named the stars and heard their first song, he created us.  He not only gave us an intellect like his and free-will like his, but when we had fallen, and our own spirits led us astray, he gave his own Spirit to live inside us.  The God we love offered his own son as a sacrifice to save us while we were yet his enemies. 

Watching my dog I feel a little guilty. I need to be reminded how amazing my God is and that there is literally nothing in the world that is better than bringing him joy. I need to be joyful in his presence, dejected by his disappointment and never more pleased than by pleasing him.  I need to love the way she does: wholeheartedly, extravagantly, ridiculously.

Helene