Blog
“Loyalty”
Categories: M. W. Bassford, Meditations
My in-laws own a Chihuahua named Boomer. He is a dog of many faults. For one, his toilet habits are erratic. The worst fight that I’ve ever seen my wife have with my mother-in-law took place because my wife had stepped in a deposit that Boomer had left in the floor of the guest bedroom.
However, Boomer does reliably erupt with yaps and snarls whenever a stranger comes on to the property. His bark is worse than his bite, but it’s not for lack of trying. My in-laws keep him penned up whenever they have visitors so that he does not fall upon them in his wrath.
Occasionally, my in-laws’ vigilance has failed, with results both distressing and comical. Most notably, Boomer once bit a political pollster. If his abilities had been equal to his outrage, I suspect he would have killed the pollster. In fairness, though, he never has tried to bite me nor anyone in my family.
I’ve never mistreated Boomer, but I’ve never been at pains to hide my opinion of the dog either. The nicest thing I’ve ever said about him is that he’s not a cat. At my urging, my wife once put a set of rat traps in my mother-in-law’s Christmas stocking to help her with her infestation. Wherever I am, stories of Boomer the psycho Chihuahua are good for a laugh.
However, my opinion of Boomer has changed of late. He seems to know that I have ALS. I suspect he can smell it on me.
When I get down on the floor to stretch, now Boomer will be there beside me. Sometimes he stretches too; sometimes he licks my hand. More generally, he wants to be in the room where I am, even if he’s just snoring in the corner.
Now that I am recovering from COVID in my in-laws’ house, his vigilance has increased. He certainly can smell the COVID stank on me (I fear that people the next county over can smell it), and he is concerned about me. Last night, my mother-in-law had to pick him up and carry him out of my bedroom because he refused to leave.
Boomer remains a dog of many faults. As I write this, one of his omnipresent white dog hairs is on the keyboard of my laptop. Given the rate at which he sheds, I figure he must be about half hair. However, he is loyal, and in my book, that counts for a lot.
At the end of my life, I must acknowledge that I too have been a dog of many faults. I haven’t bitten any pollsters (though I may yet if they hold still long enough), but I have transgressed the will of my Master in a myriad of ways. However, I also have sought Him all my life, and I desire nothing more than to be where He is. In a word, I have been loyal.
If the loyalty of a dog matters to me, how much more does our loyalty matter to God! “I delight in loyalty,” He says. Delight! When we seek Him diligently despite our imperfections, our Creator is delighted!
In this I find great comfort, as should we all. God isn’t looking for reasons to turn His faithful people away. He is looking for reasons to forgive, to embrace, and to welcome. “God knows my heart,” generally doesn’t get people as far as they think, but if loyalty is what He finds in our hearts, we have nothing to fear from Him.
