Between Us and the Monsters

As God has done so frequently throughout my life, he spoke to me recently through the actions of my daughter’s most furry BFF, her rescue dog, Cupcake.  Sometimes, most times many might well say, our pets are the ones who can and do show us the fearless, unconditional love that we’ve searched for in the people all around us our whole lives.  And for that reason, it often seems easier to sense the magnitude of God’s love for us through our beloved pets versus our harder-to-love humans.

The incident that brought me back to this revelation a couple of weeks ago involved a relatively new washing machine that can make an awful lot of noise when it gets off balance (just like many of us!).  Well, whenever our new washer starts becoming “monster-like” (my daughter’s words), her precious pup (who’s now an elderly girl) gets really freaked out.  She starts to pace and even drool a little and sometimes we must even give her a calming treat.  She really hates that machine.  It’s almost like it has become her nemesis in this life.  Yet, our dog does the most remarkable thing when that mechanical monster gets riled up.  She eventually works up the courage to slink over as close to it as she can handle and position her trembling self between that machine and us—and she chooses to remain there until the big monster sleeps.  Though she’s been doing this for a while now, it only struck me recently what an extraordinary thing this is.

The last time I saw her lying there on our floor trembling uncontrollably yet refusing to move all the same, the image of our Christ refusing to back down for our sake came into my head and it wouldn’t leave.  The gospels show us that Christ felt the gamut of human emotions.  I think we forget how fully human Christ was, how he was very personally and repeatedly tempted by the enemy, how he got angry when his Father’s house was defiled, how he debated men and women alike, how he touched those no one else would, how he drank wine and broke bread with his brothers and sisters, how he cried when his friend died, how he slept when he needed to, how he sweated blood as his followers slept—and how he asked the Father if there was any other way out for us.  Yes, our God willing stepped into a suit of flesh and took on every part of what that means, minus the sin, and he did so because he knew that’s what had to be done to save us from all the many monsters down here.  That doesn’t mean we no longer have to face those monsters, but it does mean that we never have to face them alone and that they never, ever get the last word—only the Word who became flesh gets that.  And I thank him for reminding me of this via that most lovely (and yes, almost-human) creature that God made and sent our way, our very own scaredy-brave Scooby-Doo fighting the monster machine!