Puppy Love

I have been thinking about worship lately.  If you lump it all together and define it as love / devotion / adoration, then it just might be the only thing we can give to God that he cannot take or get without us.  Everything else is under God’s sovereign control.  He owns everything.  He even ultimately owns me.  He can take my life whenever he pleases.  But one thing he can not take is my worship of him.  Because he gave us free will, my love, devotion, and adoration are the only real thing I can bring to the relationship.  Everything else, he can get himself.

All of this reminds me a little bit of the new puppy we have at home.  Gracie is a 12 week old German Shepherd and she has firmly established a relationship with our family.  She depends on us to provide for her needs.  She causes trouble, pees on the floor, doesn’t buy her own food, chews things she shouldn’t, tracks mud on the floor. . .  She really doesn’t bring much at all to the relationship except trouble . . . and love, devotion, and adoration.

When I come home from work, she greets me at the door like I am some long lost friend.  She jumps, licks, nips, whines, and generally makes a big scene until I reach down and give her some love.  When we are home together, she is happy.  When we are apart, she is sad.  When I praise her, she wags her tail.  When I rebuke her sternly, she grovels, licking my hand and begging for forgiveness, which I can’t help but willingly give.

I won’t say she worships me, but it does remind me a whole lot of what worship might be.  So, I decided to look up worship in the Bible.  I was reminded of the scripture where Jesus said we must worship God in spirit and in truth.  I read the scripture then looked up the definition of the Greek word for worship that was used there.  Wouldn’t you know, it’s probably derived from another word which means “. . . to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand.”

So, maybe there is a little bit of a picture of worship in a puppy’s relationship to his master.  If so, then I suppose I’m the puppy and God is the master.  But that’s OK with me, because I know how much this master loves his puppy.