God spelled backwards is Dog and I don’t think that’s any bit of a coincidence. From the time I was a little girl I’ve had a deep love for dogs and have always loved analyzing the way dogs teach us about the love of Jesus. I firmly believe God comes to comfort us in ways that are familiar to our hearts.
When I was deciding whether or not to take the leap of faith to go on the race, one of my biggest concerns was being gone from my dog for 11 months. Not only that, but how could I be away from dogs in general for almost a year? In some cultures, having a dog is unheard of. If people do have dogs, it’s to protect their family and their land, but nothing more. Not everyone views them the way we do in Western culture. I prepared my heart to see starving and homeless dogs on the race. I prepared myself not to be able to interact with them or touch them. I was going to be okay with that, but it was something my heart had to grieve.
The moment we arrived at our host’s house in Panama, month 1 on the World Race, there was a wagging, medium-sized, floppy-eared, four-legged friend on our front porch. What joy arose in my chest as I breathed in that moment. He made it feel like home before I even jumped out of the truck.
“This is Rex. He’s your host dog. He’ll follow you everywhere if you let him and he can even sleep inside. It’s up to you.”
It had been a 30 hour travel day. We were covered in layers of sweat, having been in the same clothes for way too long and our eyelids were beyond heavy. It was the first moment of many where I thought, “what exactly have I gotten myself into?” God knew I‘d feel his comfort in the presence of a dog.
Rex followed us everywhere during our month in Panama. He followed us back and forth between our host’s house and our house. He followed us to the beach and to the restaurant for a coke on hot afternoons. He stayed by our side when we got caught out in rainstorms. He’d chase the truck down the street when we’d leave to go to the indigenous village for ministry and he’d be waiting for us on the porch when we got home with a wagging tail and a smiling face. His loyalty was constant. I thanked God for the characteristics of Him that I could see in the companionship of this dog.
It wasn’t just Rex that God gave us. Every single time I was feeling anything other than peace, God gave me a dog. One time we were at a Spanish-speaking service after a long day of manual labor. I was sitting in the back and these two stray dogs kept playing together and bumping into me. Before I knew it they were playing together in my lap and making me laugh. One time I was walking home and praying really hard for God to renew my mind and my attitude towards a situation. I walked up to the house and there was a dog laying against the steps wagging his tail vigorously. I patted him on the head and said “thank you, God.”
Another night we were out at a Spanish-speaking service and my squad leader could sense some spiritual warfare going on in a local. She called us over to talk about it and said we were going to pray for this man after the service that was feeling chained down by the enemy. The Lord has grown my understanding of spiritual warfare a lot on the race and I’m so much more aware of the strongholds that the enemy can place in our lives, even as believers. However, this was my first experience facing this head on. I was standing there listening to the sermon overcome by fear. I told God in prayer that I needed him to comfort me through this process. I asked him for the comfort of a dog to come kiss my toes because he had provided dogs in the sweetest moments all month. At that exact moment, before I could even finish my prayer, a dog ran over to me and lathered my toes in kisses. Tears streamed down my face and I knew God‘s peace was over the situation. “Thank you, God.”
On our rest day, my team and I went to a resort and paid for day passes to use their pool and WiFi. A cute brown dog had wandered onto the property from the beach and came and laid down by us. When we got up to leave, she followed us home. From that night on she slept on our porch every night. We named her Jenni. One night we hosted 28 indigenous tribal women in our home so Hannah, Rachel, and I slept in our hammocks and bug nets on the porch. We hadn’t seen Jenni all day and wondered where she was. At about 2am she wandered up on the porch and started crying loudly because she was excited that we were outside. I unzipped my bug net and patted her on the head and said “thank you God.”
One morning my team woke up early before ministry to go worship on the beach. We played soft worship music on the speaker, but had the freedom to go walk and talk to God. We were encouraged to find him in whatever was familiar to us. That could be listening to our own music, sitting and meditating on his word, or just walking along the beach. I started walking on the beach and two stray dogs came and walked with me. When I sat down on the sand, they sat down next to me and rolled over for a belly rub. Out loud I said, “thank you, God.”
I had let my team in on the fact that God was comforting me in this way. The night before we left Panama, my team traveled to a ministry base that was hosting a couple of our other teams on the squad. Hannah and Rachel and I decided we wanted to run as far as we could into the woods and sing songs of worship. Before we knew it a dog was running after us barking. At first we were a little fearful of him, but his bark was worse than his bite. He covered us in kisses and just stared at us as we sang Amazing Grace. Hannah looked at me and said, “Julie! He did it again!”
I thanked God for Panama and the chapter that it was! I knew I‘d always remember Panama for its loving dogs and genuine people.
But you guys, it didn’t stop there. We got to Costa Rica, met our hosts, and were immediately greeted by a floppy-eared, smiley-eyed, one-year-old black lab. “This is Sammy. He’s our property dog. He has a lot of energy and loves that you guys are here.” My teammates looked at me with smiles on their faces. It’s my job to feed Sammy breakfast and dinner every day, give him baths, and teach him tricks. Our hosts call me the dog whisperer. My heart is happy.
It’s funny the loyalty and companionship we can feel in a creature that never speaks a single word. Dogs exude an immeasurable amount of joy and want nothing more than to love and be loved in return. They crave your love and attention and will spend all day with you if you let them. They have remarkable intuition when it comes to sensing human feeling and matching emotion. I know when I’m happy and joyful my dog wants nothing more than to join me in a playful spirit. When I’m sad she knows to come and lean into me, putting her face by my face and giving me a kiss on the cheek. She comes to me the way that God does. He’s always joyful when we talk to him. He greets us with unceasing love. He never judges or discriminates. He also wants to spend all day with us if we let him. He craves our attention and is jealous of our time. He’s happy when we’re happy, and he weeps with us when we are sad. But most of all, He loves unconditionally.
A couple of my favorite dog quotes:
“The Lord in his wisdom gave us three things to make life more bearable; humor, hope, and dogs. But the greatest of these is dogs.” -Robyn Davidson
“God said I need somebody strong enough to pull sleds and find bombs, yet gentle enough to love babies and lead the blind. Somebody who will spend all day on a couch with a resting head and supportive eyes to lift the spirits of a broken heart, so God made a dog.”
