Dog Theology, part 8: Image

I don't know how many times I've had this conversation.

Person: Do you have any kids?
Me: No, we have two dogs. They're our kids for now.

Often times, I (and plenty of other dog owners) treat our pets like children. Heather and I are guilty of baby-talking to them and discussing their personality type as would be indicated on the Enneagram or the Myers-Brigg. We personify our dogs quite a bit.

Some pet lovers go to the extreme buying their animals gourmet treats from those cheesy mall kiosks, put them in Halloween costumes, check them into doggy hotels and make sure their animal is well groomed with regular pedicures, teeth cleanings, hair cuts and more.

Sometimes I get worried that we personify our dogs a bit too much and then find ourselves surprised when our dogs do something very dog-like. Dakota, is our oldest daughter, and she loves us very much (just like a furry daughter should). But when you give her a rawhide to chew on she growls at whoever walks by and won't give it up to save her life. We get upset at Lola when petting Dakota, because Lola comes and knocks Dakota out of the way shamelessly. We often expect them to share things. And when they're in the back seat of the car it's not uncommon for one dog to lay out taking almost all the space with no regard for the spacial needs of our other dog. I can't believe Lola would do a thing like that. But then I remember...

Their just dogs! They don't know about sharing or respecting personal space. They know about reflexes, instincts and operate conditioning.

Voltaire, the French Enlightenment writer, was once quoted as saying something like this, "God created man in His image, and man returned the favor."

One of the great precepts of Christianity is that we are created in God's image (whatever that means, we're not precisely sure). Because of this, Christians believe that we have a connection with the Divine. This is a very life-giving belief in most cases.

For thousands of years men and women have had what they believe to be experiences of the Divine and recorded them in writing. You'll find the most popular records in books known today as the Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, etc. From our experiences of God we began drawing certain conclusions about God, such as: God is all-powerful or all knowing, or God is with us, or God is love.

But somewhere along the way as people described God, God began to sound like a really big old man in a fancy chair sitting somewhere in the sky we can't see. They started proclaiming that God was on these peoples' side and against those people. We started thinking that because someone did something we didn't like, that God was going to "get" them for us.

We started writing books claiming that if you read this book you can know the true will of God. We started telling each other that God has a specific path that your life should take in order to be holy otherwise you're disappointing God. People proclaimed that if you pray a certain way or enough times you'll force God's very big old hand to act on your behalf. They also said that certain natural disasters such as those destroying New Orleans and Haiti are the wrath of God on bad people.

Voltaire's quote is very profound, and I think too often true. It seems to me that this God is talked about more as a person than a creating life-giving deity. I sure hope that God is beyond the need to avenge me for my enemies. I pray to a God who wept over the deaths of both those killed when the Trade Center fell and when thousands of Iraqis were subsequently killed. It's hard to imagine a God who takes sides in our wars as hard as that might be to swallow especially when thinking about the Holocaust.

I find it beneficial in this day and age to resist the urge to do as Voltaire quipped and personify God, view God in our own image. I believe in a God who can do things humans cannot like resist the temptation for revenge, and who is always, as Paul wrote about in 1 Cor. 13, on the side of love.

This is one of the many things our dogs can teach us. Personifying can be fun with pets but dangerous with God.