My Dog, Oaklee

You recall the best–selling book, My Dog, Skip, by Willie Morris. My dog’s name is Oaklee. He’s a fine Boxer dog. Yesterday he was two years old. “Happy birthday, Oaklee.”

You know, as I think of what a good friend Oaklee is, I think I see some things in my dog that we need in the church. So here goes…

My dog is always glad to see me. I wish we could be as glad to see the time for worship services coming as my dog is to see me coming. He’ll get so excited he can hardly control himself. He’ll wear a big ol’ smile and greet me aggressively (that’s an understatement). Why aren’t we that happy and excited about God and His people?

I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the LORD” (Psalms 122:1 NKJV).

My dog rarely gets his feelings hurt. If he does, he gets over it real quick. If my dog were easily offended, I doubt that we would have much of a relationship. He would be pouting like a baby so much that we would never be able to interact. If we are in a group of people and wear our feelings on our sleeves, someone might brush against us. Then guess what gets hurt. A lot of wounded feelings have as their origin a misplaced emphasis: “It’s all about me!” instead of “How may I help you!”

Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others (Philippians 2:4 NKJV).

My dog defines loyalty. He sticks with me. He is asleep at my feet as I write this. If he thinks I may face a threat, he is very protective. I really think he would die for me to try and keep me from harm. Whoever called a dog “man’s best friend” obviously had a dog. I tend to like my dog. Wonder why? If we would be as loyally supportive of each other as my dog is of me, I think people would tend to like us. What do you think?

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16 NKJV).

My dog knows how to love. Oh does he! Talk about affectionate…. He can’t get close enough (I have long since stopped worrying about little brown hairs on my clothing). I don’t have to sit by my lonesome self in a chair, even if I have my morning cup of coffee. I’ll have a seventy pound visitor. He shows me that he loves me. Now, we wouldn’t want to be physically affectionate with each other like my dog is with me, but we can show our love in appropriate ways – if we just would. Do you love your brethren? How do they know that?

… through love serve one another (Galatians 5:13 NKJV).