I think about my relationship with God a lot. Often I think about it from my point of view, but yesterday, I was sitting with my dogs and I started to think about God’s perspective on my relationship with Him.
With every single one of my dogs, I have realized that each and every one of them have been unique. I could never compare how I felt about one with how I felt about another because it would be like comparing an apple to a hammer. It’s not even like comparing an apple to an orange. At least apples and oranges are food. Each dog is so unique; there’s just no comparison of my love for them.
Along with that, I realized that I don’t want the dog to meet some standard or expectation that I have of what the perfect dog should be. I just want each dog to be themselves totally. I might want to correct their behavior, but I also want to just accept them exactly as they are. I would never want to change the dog; I just want to love them exactly where they are for exactly who they are.
I realized that even though God has trillions of creations, my relationship with Him is unique. I am thankful for that. I also realized that even though God would love for me to be a better human being, God’s grace means that He accepts me exactly as I am. He loves me for who I am and doesn’t want to change that.
I know it is sort of strange to compare humans to dogs, but in this case, it helps me to understand God better. I don’t look at my dog and think about what I can do to change that dog and make it the perfect dog. I look at my dog and think about accepting her and loving her as she is.
I think too often people think God wants to change us into people who are better than we were before. People who are more moral and ethical. People who don’t sin as much. Although God wants us to be more loving and understanding, the biggest part of loving ourselves and each other is being able to accept ourselves and one another exactly as we are with all our best qualities, but also all of our faults. It’s when we accept the good and the bad that we love the best. When we love with open hearts and open minds, then we don’t sin as much, we do act morally and ethically and we don’t do these things because we have to, but because it comes naturally. We’ve known this for ages: Love truly is the answer.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
