Friday, May 3, 2019

Do Dogs Go To Heaven?




Do Dogs Go to Heaven?

Recently Pope Francis told a young boy whose dog has died that paradise is open to all of God's creatures.

This is a compassionate response to that boy.  It is also a word of assurance to anyone who has had a pet – particularly a dog – who wonders what happens when that pet dies.
Our dog, Brantley, died this past month, at age 11 ½ and left a big empty hole in our hearts.  We have been grieving for him the way we would grieve for a dear friend and family member.  Anyone who has had a companionable dog who has died, knows exactly how that feels. 

Brantley picked us out, not the other way around.

We had lost our beloved Yorkie, Tuppence, after 17 ½ years.  As she grew into old age, we had agreed together that when the time came, and she died, we would not get another dog.  The reasons were very practical. We both worked, she spent a fair amount of time at home alone.  We liked to travel.  She didn’t travel with us which meant kennels and boarding and the costs that went with it.  Life would be simpler without another dog – when the time came.

And then, sweet Tuppence died.  We reminded ourselves of what we had agreed.  But the house seemed very empty indeed.  We missed that smiling little presence.
I was the weak link.  I lasted a week. And then insisted that we get another dog.  We agreed that it would be either another Yorkie or a Miniature Schnauzer - since both do not shed. We looked at several pet stores and shelters.  We ended up at one particular pet store with lots of puppies, and at least 6 Yorkie puppies.  They were in kennel cages along a long wall, with some at the right end and some at the left end. Lots of other dogs in the cages in-between.

As I walked from one end of the pet shop to the other, a small face with bright eyes and a sweet smile watched me walk by and walk back.  His gaze was locked on my face.  I asked one of the attendants in the shop what kind of a dog it was.  “A Yochon,” was the reply.  Half Yorkshire Terrier and half Bichon Frise.  “We need to see that dog.” Indeed we did.  

The attendant brought him to the get-to-know-you enclosure, he nuzzled his head under Judy’s chin, and that was all it took.  She looked at me and said, “Do they have two of them?”

Our dog Brantley received love and care, affection and attention, treats and trips, from us.  And yet: If we were to try to balance that with what he gave, the scales would tip heavily in his direction.  Because in addition to the love and care and affection and attention he gave us, he served as an example of unconditional love and pure empathy.  I often referred to him as love bundled up in fur.

The Bible is not encouraging when you look in a concordance and are asking what it says about dogs.  It seems the Biblical writers did not have a fondness for them, and even Jesus speaks disparagingly of dogs.  When dog lovers who are also faithful Christians read these passages, they tend to wince.  Maybe there were more stray, rabid, and dangerous dogs in Bible times?  Maybe people then were adverse to dogs, in the same way that they were averse to recreational swimming?  No matter. 

God watches over all of God’s creation.  They experience. They suffer. They grieve. They love.
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The lord god made them all.

God took such infinite pains to make them, one must feel certain that they will somehow inhabit God’s eternal kingdom.  Even as the animals were drawn to St Francis, so too, we will be surrounded by these good and gentle creatures.  

Edward Hicks’ many paintings of The Peaceable Kingdom – an eschatological state inferred from texts such as the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Hosea, and the Sermon on the Mount – will one day become the everlasting reality.  Dogs will be in heaven.  It warms my heart to trust it to be true. 

"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi there! I believed, they went to heaven right after their pet cremation seattle that's why we need to give all are pets a final and memorable arrangement to them. Thank you.