When I was in eighth grade, as part of our confirmation program, I wrote a faith statement in bubbly letters on wide-ruled paper. “God is like my dog,” I wrote, describing how the unconditional love of our dog, Casey, had sustained me through the challenges of middle school. She showed up, listened and only, ever, loved.
Now more than 30 years later, our family recently rescued our own furry bundle of God-bearing goodness. Our kids are learning responsibility from having a dog. While they are not yet excited about poop-scooping, they take good care of Pepper and never forget to feed her. I hope that having a non-human animal in our household will expand my children’s understanding of who we see as “ours,” so that they will begin to feel a deep kinship with creatures beyond our human family. My hope is that we will all grow in kinship and in responsibility to our non-human neighbors.
This message is excerpted from the Bible study “Scripture and nature: Teachers of faith” by Sara Olson-Smith in the January/February 2024 Gather magazine.
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