My title comes from I Love My Dog by Cat Stevens. I don’t understand why a cat would love a dog 😃. But the song emphasizes how the love of a dog is unconditional:
So, I love my dog as much as I love you
But you may fade, my dog will always come through
I don’t have any pets nowadays, but we did have a good many when I was growing up dogs – cats, a white mouse, two white rabbits, a budgie and fish. I personally had a tank of tropical fish. They never really interacted with me, but they used to jump around when I approached the tank to feed them. But, I suppose dogs were the best of all. Recently, I was visiting a friend, and a dog jumped up on the couch and licked me in the face. It was such a delightful feeling being so loved. It almost made me feel like I should go around licking everyone’s face, but I’m not sure if everyone would appreciate me licking their face 😃.
How does all this relate to my Christian faith? I’ll just make two points.
A dog doesn’t know much about our faults and failings. Maybe dogs can get grudges, but in my general experience, they just love us. God knows us inside out, yet once we commit our lives to Christ, he just goes on loving us. When all the disciples deserted Jesus at the cross, and when Peter denied him, Jesus rose from the dead and went back to all his friends. He didn’t strike them all dead or start afresh with new disciples. He knew their faults and failings. He even predicted that Peter would deny him. In fact, if you’ll allow me to get a little philosophical, I believe that God knew us before the world was even created. When Jesus was dying on the cross, he knew that he was dying for sinners, but he saw us as his friends.
John 15:13
 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.Â
In fact, the Apostle Paul described himself as the chief of sinners. And Jesus prayed for us on the night before he died:
John 17:20
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The second point is why does God bother with us? When I had my tropical fish, now and then, one of them would die. I didn’t grieve. It would be an odd thing to grieve for a tropical fish. And we are so far beneath God, why does he take an interest in us?
Well, think of a baby. It’s such a delight to hold a newborn baby, as mentioned in Because He Lives. It’s a rare thing not to bond with your own baby. And when we believe, we become children of God (see John 1:12)
And isn’t it amazing that the Son of God chose to be born into the world and become one of us. And he remains one of us. It’s true that he maintains all the attributes of God, but he became human and remains human, albeit in a glorified state. He is our mediator.
1 Tim 2:5-6
5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.
Christmas is approaching, so let me close with a couple of Christmas hymns that celebrate the incarnation. Well, Meekness and Majesty isn’t really a Christmas hymn, but it does probe the mystery of the incarnation.
Hibernia Gospel 