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of my pivotal beliefs is that God showers us with unrecognized
blessings and that we are offered continual grace as we go along our
life’s path. One of my primary sources of God’s grace came to me while I was in seminary. She was a skinny (You could count her ribs.), filthy (Petting her reminded me of whipping my hands on a mechanics oil rag.), crawling with fleas, beautiful German shepherd. I wasn’t planning to have a dog. I couldn’t afford to feed a dog (I was eating 10¢ per pound margarine that tasted like Crisco with yellow coloring.) But when I told her all of this that first night we met, she turned to my brand-new screen door and racked her paw down it. I got the message: She was moving in. I named her Sarai (säré – rhymes with “Mary”). It was Sarai who would sleep under my desk-table with her snoot on my foot so that I couldn’t move without waking her. It was Sarai who listened to me practice preach in that three-room cabin called “the student’s parsonage” on the far edge of the parking lot. It was Sarai who would jump up when about 11 p.m. every night I’d say “OK! Time for a break!” and the two of us would run outside to play tag for 5-10 minutes. It was Sarai who stood at my side very softly growling if a strange man knocked at the door. It was Sarai who would sit on the parsonage stairs two years later as I frantically raced up and down the stairs trying to remember everything before I left the parsonage on Sunday morning … wanting to make everything look smooth and perfect. And as she sat there with a twinkle in her eye, she’d wait until my face was right in front of her and then lick the right lens of my glasses. It’s really hard to be stiff and pretentious while you’re cleaning dog tongue tracks from your glasses! It changed my whole persona. I owe Sarai way more than I could ever repay. She taught me to play when I was too tired to move. She taught me to loosen up and laugh. She taught me loyalty. She taught me lessons on loving without wanting reward. And I do believe Sarai was God’s messenger of grace. |
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