Learning Spirituality from a
Dog
(copyright 1996 Donald E. Lindman)
Have you ever noticed that "dog" is "God" spelled
backward? And those of us who have canine companions
understand why...a dog in many ways is a reflection of
the attributes of God, particularly the attributes of
forgiveness, patience, and grace. I'm particularly
struck by the fact that when I come home beaten by life
and by parishioners, with my family mad at me and me not
even feeling very good about myself, the dog is there to
greet me, tail wagging, a smile on his face, saying with
all his body language that "even if the rest of the
world thinks you're junk, I think you're great!" That's
grace!
Which leads my meandering mind to a story:
An old man lived with his hound-dog, Mace, in a
run-down shack on the outskirts of town. He had no
family and only a few meager possessions: a table and
chair, a bed, a bag of hand tools, and his dog. He used
the tools to do odd jobs in town, for which he usually
would be paid enough to get food for the next day. Mace
and his master lived from one day to the next on what
little these jobs would bring in.
The dog was just a normal hound, with one exception:
while most dogs like to chew on grass occasionally, Mace
loved it. When the old man was in town, Mace would spend
the day in the yard in front of the house, chewing away
on the lawn.
One bright, sunny day the old man said goodbye to his
dog and headed in to town to work. He had a plumbing
repair job in one of the homes there that would take him
most of the day and would probably pay enough for food
for the remainder of the week, if he managed the money
carefully. He headed for town with a spring in his step
and a whistle on his lips.
Inside the house and ready to start, the old man
reached in the bag for his wrench. To his surprise he
didn't feel it. He dug around again, but there didn't
seem to be any wrench. He looked in the bag, then dumped
its contents on the floor, but still no wrench. Reality
set in. Without a wrench he couldn't finish the job, and
without the pay he couldn't even buy food for supper,
let alone tomorrow.
When he finally came to grips with reality, he told
the lady who hired him what the situation was. While she
sympathized with his situation, the job needed to be
done. If the old man couldn't do it, she would have to
hired someone else.
The old man packed up his tools and headed home, head
bowed and shoulders stooped. The whistle was gone and no
longer was there a spring in his step. A walk that
normally took 15 minutes seemed to last forever. But
finally the old shack came into view, and there was Mace
in the distance, munching away as usual on the lawn.
When the dog saw his master, he came running, tail
wagging, telling the old man how glad he was to see him.
Kneeling beside the hound, the man began to pet him, and
through ear-filled eyes told the dog that there would be
no supper tonight and no food for tomorrow. What's more,
without money to buy a new wrench, he had no idea what
the future held. It was the loneliest, most helpless
feeling he had ever had!
Then he caught a glimpse of something shining in the
grass. As the old man cover to see what this piece of
shining material was, his despair turned in an instant
to joy! It was the wrench! The old man had dropped it on
his way out that morning, and it would have been lost
forever had Mace not been eating farther away from the
house than he usually did!
The old man grabbed the dog, gave him a hug that
almost suffocated him, and ran into the house. Reaching
for a stub of pencil and the only piece of paper he had,
he wrote a moving tribute to his canine companion.
Few people have ever heard these words...until now,
that is. One man who did happen to read them changed
them a bit and has his name recorded in music history.
The old man never did get the credit he deserved. But
now you on rehu are privileged to read the beginning
line of his original poem, which went: "A grazing Mace,
how sweet the hound that saved a wrench for
me."
