Our dog is a carefree, happy mutt who spends her days chasing squirrels, and pressing we three humans to play with her. The signals she sends out when she's hungry are pretty obvious as well, tailing any of us who go into the kitchen to prepare a snack or meal. The communication is very limited, but the outcome has been humorous and loving. I've seen my kids respond to her as though she was a newborn sister with four legs!

The more I deal with Chewy, the more I'm struck by two things. One, she will obey when I use a stern voice and she isn't distracted. Two, I wonder if she knows more English than any of us realize.

You see, our dog shows a rapt attention whenever food is around and waits, not so patiently, to be able to lick the plates or bowls clear. After all, I pre-wash most items to avoid baked on bits from escaping the "tongue lashing" of the dishwasher! We laughed over the advice to keep her from swallowing diced parts of onions or garlic but keep these toxic parts of our food from her.

Obviously, she speaks "food" VERY well, and obeys instruction when chattering squirrels are not darting about the back yard, competing for her attention! Notably, she has never spoken one word of English, and as far as I can tell, has an extremely limited understanding of our language!

I noticed a couple of things since we've adopted her. First, she is humble to the point of avoiding the attempts of our cat to pick a fight with her, and second, she's happy with a boring bowl of dry food, a bit of milk, and a spoon of honey. Ok, not so content. She gobbles up cut up hot dogs faster than I can wink!

Here's where the rubber bites into the asphalt. I can talk to her all I want. She cuddles happily with any of us on the couch as we watch Bonanza re-runs on Youtube. But the part of our lives in which all our prayers, devotionals and church takes place, our dog is less than interested. In fact, she shows a pronounced jealousy when I hold hands with my kids to pray at night. We cross the great language divide the same way that God does with each of us, with love and attention. Which led me to understand that the wisdom I show with her, God shows with me.

Where I don't understand why God allows or deflects danger are quite similar to the ways I protect and keep my pet from danger or breaking community laws in our town regarding domesticated animals. As long as there are boundaries around her life, she's free to bark, play, sleep, and make friends with the cat and each of us! There's a good deal of trust that terrier mix has in us, life, food, shelter, even love. And it reminded the rest of us some lessons of trust we should have with our Lord!

Lord, may we find our contentment humbly in You, our world to be sustained in Your gracious supply!