When I started walking my son’s dog a phenomenon occurred that I had only heard about previously, but never experienced. Complete strangers, when seeing the dog, lifted their eyes, smiled, waved, and greeted me as if I were escorting a crowned prince on his royal walk.
It doesn’t take long to appreciate the blessings that a dog brings. God has wired them, and us, to bring out the best in each other. Treat a dog well and you will experience levels of faithfulness and companionship that few people you know will ever match. As a rule, a pet dog does not go out of its way to cause deliberate harm or leave you feeling alone—people do.
It should go without saying that it is our fellow human beings whom God has designed to meet our needs. The fact that so many people find more solace in animals than people is an indictment against all of us.
The devil is an expert at isolating people. He does his worst work when he lulls Christians into thinking that a little fellowship is more than enough. If easing Christians away from each other fails, he will pick our relationships apart stitch by stitch.
This calls for vigilance. We must go out of our way to shore up our spiritual friendships, lest we drift away from each other. We cannot work together if we are seldom together. If issues stand in the way of a godly working relationship, we must sort them out. How we see others is indicative of how we see God.
“If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).
John Staiger