I am absolutely the wrong person to write a post about the joy of pets. Every single member of my family would be a million times better suited. My wife and children are animals lovers to the core of their being. I am not. My heart is too small.
How much do they love animals? Every single one of them would consider it an honor to lay down their life to keep a squirrel from getting run over. My wife grew up with all manner of pets and farm animals – pet dogs, pet pigs, pet raccoons, you name it. Pets and animals were her best friends in a traumatic childhood. She cannot live without an animal to accompany her on the journey that is life.
My children? One volunteers in kill shelters. She willingly does literally the crappiest job – she cleans the animals’ refuse from their cages. Why? Because she loves to see their joy at having a clean home. When a cruel-hearted man took over the shelter and began quickly sentencing rescue animals to their death, she organized an underground network to save them, driving animals to other states to find them a safe home.
The other child? They don’t eat meat because they don’t want animals to suffer. They stop traffic to pick up opossums and transport them safely to the side of the road. They brought home every injured bird they came across for us to mend. They scuba dive so they can commune with sharks. They’ve never met an animal they didn’t love.
Me? Forget wild animals, I’ve groused about every dog we’ve ever owned. I complain about the messes they make, all the inconveniences they cause. Do I really have to walk the dog again? Why won’t the dog stop barking? Dear, the dog just ate our daughter’s allowance! Are you crazy!? Of course we’re not taking in this stray!
Enter Rapha
But I’m going to write this post for one animal. His name is Rapha. Rapha is our dog. He’s about 10 years old. We’ve had him since he was six months or so.
Sometimes Rapha annoys the hell out of me. He is never not hungry. I mean, this creature will eat dirt. He is part hound, and he whines incessantly. He is unbelievably anxious. If my wife is gone for five minutes at the store, he will lay pressed against the front door in inconsolable mourning like his whole family has just died or something.
But, I love Rapha. I love him like I’ve never loved any other animal. I don’t really want to, but I can’t help it. His heart is as pure as the driven snow. He looks at you with absolutely unsullied, unquestioning adoration, as if you actually deserved it. When he has to go outside to take care of business, he will bring you his bone and drop it at your feet – his bone ticket. When he wants you to pet him, he will press down on your foot with his paw – pushing the button. Irresistible.
Rapha is a very good boy. Very obedient, very loving, very devoted. So sweet and gentle.
If you think about it, it is remarkable that Rapha is even capable of such innocent love and trust. You see, we got him from a rescue shelter. For the first six months of his life, down in the Carolinas, his original owner beat and abused him mercilessly. When we first met him, he was skin and bones, scared of his own shadow. He cowered in the corner if your voice raised even an octave. Even now, he is skittish with almost anyone outside our family, especially men. In an instant, that old fear rises in his eyes and his tail buries itself between his legs. Yet, he loves with a purity that puts me to shame.
Our Faithful Companion
Rapha goes with us everywhere in our van, out on the trail, out in the kayak. He is our constant companion. He loves to go hiking, he loves to lay by the campfire, and he definitely loves to eat French fries when we go to an outdoor brewpub.
Still, I don’t think Rapha really likes road tripping in the van. He’s kind of a homebody. And he gets motion sickness. It took us months of training before he could even travel in a car across town without getting sick.
But, car sickness be damned, there is one thing he loves more than anything (even food), one thing for which he would sacrifice everything. It is a simple thing really. He wants to be with us.
And so he never complains. He can hear the van door slide open from 100 feet (30 meters). And when it does, there is nothing on this earth that could stop him from crossing that distance and leaping inside. He lays down between us, looks up lovingly, and we are off.
Yes, Rapha is a very good boy. He will never know how much joy he has brought this man with a shrunken heart. He will never know how much he has taught me about love.
What’s in a Name?
By now, you might be wondering how Rapha got his name. What does it mean?
In the shelter, they named him Noble. It was a good choice. Even emaciated and frightened out of his wits, there was something regal in him.
I renamed him Rapha for the sake of my wife. She was stricken with grief over the death of our previous dog, Agapi. She loved Agapi with her whole soul. As soon as I saw Noble’s eyes (and his flipped back ear), I knew he would heal her. You see, Rapha is an ancient Hebrew name for the God who restores: “I am the LORD, your healer” (Exodus 15:26).
And I was right. Rapha has restored my wife’s joy a million fold.
What I never suspected was that he would heal me too.
You know, C.S. Lewis wrote in The Problem of Pain that, “[i]f a good sheepdog seems ‘almost human’ that is because a good shepherd has made it so.”1 Rapha taught me that it is the other way around.
A Short Meditation
[B]ut the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him.
Please forgive me. This “short” meditation isn’t going to be so short. Why? Because this simple little verse is at the center of a whole lot of crazy context – “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma,” to steal from Winston Churchill. So, let’s begin.
This verse is the inner frame of a tragic fictional story that God uses to indict King David for an even more tragic true story (2 Samuel 12:1-15). A rich man kills this poor man’s beloved pet lamb without pity and feeds it to guests, because he can. In real life, David had taken another man’s wife and had the man murdered, because he could.
This teaches us two truths. First, it is the way of this world that the wealthy and the powerful mercilessly trample the poor and the vulnerable. Second, this state of affairs deeply offends God, and he will not let it stand. It is by this former truth that Jesus was brutally slaughtered on a cross; it is by the latter that he was gloriously resurrected.
We must live in this unjust world, but we do not do so alone and without hope.
But, let’s set all this context to the side. Just gaze with me on this beautiful little portrait of the poor man and his lamb. What does it tell us? It tells us that the love between a person and their pet is precious to God. He treasures it in his heart. It is a picture of the very good creation he intends and will certainly bring to pass, where “[t]he wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:9).
Yes, we must live in this unjust world, but we do not do so alone and without hope. God’s name is Rapha, Healer.
The next time you look into your pet’s eyes, remember.
Un Petit Aperçu
Aujourd’hui je voudrais bien parler de mon chien Rapha. Rapha a environ 10 ans maintenant. Parfois, il m'énerve vraiment. Mais j’adore Rapha. Son cœur est aussi pur que la neige. Il nous accompagne partout dans notre van, sur les sentiers, en kayak. Il est notre compagnon fidèle. Il adore faire de la randonnée, il adore s’allonger près du feu de camp et il adore manger des frites quand nous dînons a un restaurant en plein air. Je ne pense pas qu’il aime vraiment le van, mais il veut avant tout être avec nous. Rapha est un très bon chien. Il m’apporte tellement de joie. Il m’a appris tellement de choses sur l’amour.
Μία Περίληψη
Σήμερα θέλω να μιλήσω για τον σκύλο μου τον Ράφα. Ο Ράφα είναι περίπου 10 ετών τώρα. Μερικές φορές με ενοχλεί. Αλλά, λατρεύω τον Ράφα. Η καρδιά του είναι τόσο καθαρή όσο το χιόνι. Πηγαίνει μαζί μας παντού στο βανάκι μας, στα μονοπάτια, στο καγιάκ. Είναι ο πιστός μας σύντροφος. Του αρέσει να κάνει πεζοπορία, του αρέσει να ξαπλώνει δίπλα στη φωτιά και σίγουρα του αρέσει να τρώει πατάτες τηγανιτές στην ταβέρνα. Δεν του αρέσει πολύ το βαν, αλλά πάνω από όλα, θέλει απλώς να είναι μαζί μας. Ο Ράφα είναι πολύ καλό σκυλάκι. Μου δίνει τόση χαρά. Μου έχει μάθει τόσα πολλά για την αγάπη.
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: Touchstone, 1996), 124.