Читать книгу Paws to Reflect for Dog Lovers - Kim McLean - Страница 17

For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

—Ecclesiastes 12:14

I have a friend, an executive with a deep love for animals, who, every day on his way to work, drove by a dog, noticing the creature and its environment. This particular dog was chained outside the owner’s home with no dog house in sight. As the weather got hot, my friend started for work earlier each morning, giving himself enough time to leave a big bowl of water and food anonymously for the dog.

Each time, the dog looked up at him with a grateful glance as he drank the water as if he were in a desert and this a once-in-a-lifetime rain. This ritual was repeated daily, and the dog began to wait in happy anticipation for his new friend. Another anonymous present one night was a big dog house. Then he added a portable dog kennel with a cover. With every new gift, the time he spent with the dog created a bond.

So, one evening when he saw a car in the driveway, he stopped and knocked on the door. The owner of the dog turned out to be a nice person who had just taken on more than he was ready for with a dog. He wasn’t mean. He was overworked and underpaid, and his circuits were just completely overloaded when it came to his life, and his dog’s care was just a reflection of that overload. As he spoke with my friend, he began looking relieved at the prospect of his dog going to a new home.

Instead of instantly criticizing the young man for his poor care of the dog, my friend spoke of his own growing love and attachment to the animal. Change did not happen because of judgment but because of love, the only true motivation for good.

All the good works in the world don’t pave our way into heaven. All our bad deeds don’t keep us out. To God, every heart and motivation is transparent, and he compassionately deals with all he sees.—d.o.