Missing Amazing Grace

The following is the inaugural essay posted on the original paws4prayer.com website. As summer approaches and we travel to our family's cottage on Lake Wallenpaupack, PA, I'm reminded with tender pangs of the first summer we spent there...Grace's first, and her last. Nevertheless, she remains close in spirit, her paw prints as large as ever on the loamy shore of the lake and in our hearts as well....

Grace in the Field

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some people have entertained angels without knowing it.  Hebrews 13: 2

Falling For Grace      Grace came into our lives eleven years ago on the heels of the devastating and sudden loss of our four-month old puppy, Lincoln, who we adopted from a local shelter. She was almost doomed at the start to be the "replacement," a consolation prize in the wake of our grief and longing for the one that somehow got away.       It was not a very fair or fortuitous beginning, and yet she lumbered into our lives and waited...waited with amazing grace for us to fully open our hearts to her. That's how her "official" name came to be: Amazing Grace of Warren -- a small town in New Jersey where we lived at the time.      Grace was one in a litter of four Golden Retriever puppies born on the same day as our only daughter. We thought it was a happy sign that we had found the puppy that God meant for us to have in our lives. She was a big, healthy female pup whose father weighed in at a colossal 110 pounds. But for us, that only meant "more to love" -- if and when we allowed ourselves to fall in love again.      Gradually, and surely, we fell for Grace. She had the consummate Golden Retriever temperament: sweet, loyal, gentle, and forgiving. But there was something else about Grace that stood out from the other Goldens I had known or raised in my lifetime. She was simply not a retriever. Throw a ball, it would land with a dull thud. Flick a Frisbee and it would sail across the lawn while Grace watched with only the mildest interest in where it would land.  But that didn't stop us from trying. We'd coat the Frisbee with a little peanut butter before tossing it into the air. Then she'd run after it all right, but only to lick the rim of the disc and then saunter back to us with a satisfied grin. Once we paired her with my brother's Labrador Retriever, Chevis, who was the poster boy for his breed. He didn't need to be told to go-get ANYTHING. His eyes were trained on the object of his desire the very minute it was launched into the air, eager to chase and retrieve it. If we threw it once, we threw it at least a dozen more times. He had us all programmed quite well.      Grace watched Chevis fetch her toys with his distinct brand of joy and abandonment to the game. At some point, she decided it looked all right to her after all -- at which time she began to good-naturedly ambush Chevis as he returned from fetching the ball or disc, cajoling it from his mouth when he was three-quarters or more of the way back. Then she'd drop the toy at our feet and wait for the effusive praise she'd seen Chevis receive, delighting in her accomplishment. But when Chevis wasn't there to do most of the work, Grace simply wasn't interested. And after awhile, we came to accept it just wasn't her "thing." But what she lacks in the field she makes up for in hospitality, for there has never been a person or animal to enter our home who has not been joyfully welcomed by her hulking 90 pound frame.       A twenty-pound puppy with razor sharp teeth and michief in his eyes? She bows to play and seems to say: my house is your house; my people are your people; my food bowl is your food bowl...come on in!      A delicate two-pound kitten who comes with a lion-size attitude? She patiently waits with her chin on the floor, gazes longingly, and eagerly anticipates the joy of their first meeting...come on over!      A parade of visitors of every size, shape, and disposition? She perks up at the sound of the doorbell, seeming sure that whoever stands on the other side is someone she's been waiting for all of her life.      This is her gift, this graciousness that she lavishes upon every other living creature. Grace may never be a great retriever...but truly, she is a great receiver!      She has taught us much about the spirit of hospitality that Scripture exhorts us to extend to everyone we meet. May we never miss an opportunity to make the stranger among us feel welcome in our lives and in our world...for Christ himself may be passing by! A Portrait of Amazing Grace Rest In Peace, Our Beloved Grace 2/28/95 - 2/29/08

Animals in Heaven?

For those who have recently lost a beloved animal companion, it's only natural to wonder whether it's consistent with God’s plan for animals to be in Heaven. While the Catechism of the Catholic Church doesn't provide a definitive answer, the remarks made by the late Blessed Pope John Paul II – as well as the Word of God – seem to favor belief in God’s intention that the animals should be reunited with Him in His eternal Paradise:

In 1990, Blessed Pope John Paul II proclaimed that “the animals possess a soul and men must love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren.” He went on to say that all animals are “fruit of the creative action of the Holy Spirit and merit respect” and that they are “as near to God as men are.” 

The Holy Father reminded people that all living beings, including animals, came into being because of the “breath” of God. Animals possess the divine spark of life—the living quality that is the soul—and they are not inferior beings, as factory farmers, fur farmers, and others who exploit animals for profit would have us believe. 

When Blessed Pope John Paul II traveled to Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, in his Message of Reconciliation delivered there, he said that the “solicitous care, not only toward [people] but also toward animals and nature in general,” that St. Francis demonstrated is “a faithful echo of the love with which God in the beginning pronounced his ‘fiat,’ which brought them into existence.” And, the Pope added, “We, too, are called to a similar attitude.” And then, there God's Word on the subject…

†Ephesians 1:10 says: "This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head." When God says "everything," is there any room for doubt? 

†And when He says in Isaiah 34:17 (cited below) that these living creatures will live in the land "age after age," and it will belong to them "forever," does this not signify eternal life? Only one place will last forever, and that is Heaven!

Search in the Lord's book of living creatures and read what it says. Not one of these creatures will be missing and not one will be without its mate. The Lord has commanded it to be so; He Himself will bring them together. It is the Lord who will divide the land among them and give each of them a share. They will live in the land age after age, and it will belong to them for ever." —Isaiah 34:16, 17

†While only humans are made in the image and likeness of God and are the summit of His divine work, He also lovingly imagined and bestowed upon each animal its own unique nature and image. As with his own sons and daughters, He endowed and animated each creature with the universal “spark of life” – a living soul that is precious in His sight (re: the sparrow in Matthew 10:29). Perhaps it is the height of hubris that humans should limit the mercy of God and the gates of Heaven solely to those of our own kind! As for me, I don’t know if we will encounter the bodies of our beloved animal companions as we knew them on earth – but I believe I will surely recognize the unique “spark” of my beloved animal companions in Heaven and delight in their unmistakable energies, radiant in Divine Love! 

What do YOU believe?