Dying for mutual love

My little dog, Pingo, has missed me dearly for the past five months. I’ve been working away from home and he hasn’t seen or heard from me except on a couple of occasions when I could get home. He has spent his days longing for me to come home; but day after day I haven’t shown up. Finally, the loneliness took its toll on him and a few days ago he just sunk into a death-like depression.

My wife was about to call for me to come home before he died, but I happened to call her first. She told me that Pingo spent his days laying on the floor whimpering. So, we thought hearing my voice would help, and I spoke to him, repeatedly calling his name with my familiar voice. He lifted his head and looked to the front door and began wagging his tail. He was dying because he couldn’t have me with him. Hearing my voice helped for the moment, but I knew that if he found out that I wasn’t there then he would sink under another depression worse than the one he had.

That conversation worried me and I immediately began making arrangements to postpone the jobs that I had hoped to finish before going home before Thanksgiving. Last night I couldn’t sleep well and woke up at midnight to finish what I had started that day. I got it done and left that place around 2 a.m. and around 4:30 arrived at where I’m staying.

Today, I began to wrap things up, starting with another call home to let Pingo hear my voice. But, I knew I couldn’t leave until I had finished a major job that needed to be done tomorrow. I spent all day on pins and needles, closing down responsibilities I had agreed to.

This evening I called my wife again and she told me that she took him to the veterinarian. There, Pingo saw other dogs that he could befriend, and almost immediately he was back to normal! He’s all better again.

His little doggy heart was love-sick for friends, especially for his best friend, his master. But until his master could return, his dog companions would suffice. So, today my wife found a stray dog and brought it home for Pingo. Now I can breathe some relief and go back to finishing what I needed to do before going home. Then, the people here will be happy, and when I leave I will have happy people behind me and a soon-to-be happy dog before me.

Dogs are very social, but Pingo was that in a special way. When as a puppy, if he had eaten some food and the cat then sauntered up to the cat bowl, which sat next to Pingo’s, and began eating, Pingo would, just to do something together with another person, go right back to his bowl and eat again. Every day in the life of Pingo was full of doing things together with someone else. Whether it was chasing or play fighting the cat, or going on a walk with me, or barking at the terrorists on the other side of our privacy fence, he socialized non-stop.

Humans have a similar drive to socialize. No man is an island or lives unto himself. If we try to live to ourself, we dry up and go away. Many people are abused by life, a life full of selfish people. These abused ones find it difficult to trust others, to open up and express their heart’s deep desires, to be accepted. But, they suffer twice as much for not obeying the law of fellowship. They live unto themselves, but with a big hole in their heart. That hole is the size of the human race, from which they have divorced themselves.

Only one person can fill a hole the size of the human race. That person is our God. And He sent His Son to do just that. They have a God-sized hole that nothing they try can ever  fill. The world offers everything imaginable, claiming that their products will fix the emptiness disorder. Something sweet or intoxicating to drink, something dripping with grease to eat, something exciting to watch or to live through, some fiction to take the thoughts away, something to own that provides prestige, something to do to receive applause, or at least five minutes of fame, “for all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her [Babylon’s] fornication, … and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.” (Rev. 18:3).

But, we are all dying, dying for our Father and Friend. Not all acknowledge their dying; actually, very few do like my dog Pingo, and go into a slump and agonize over the loss of love. The temporary fixes seem to keep them busy enough to prevent them from recognizing their emptiness. Their psychologists and psychiatrists prevent them from ever ending up agonizing for God to return to them and to fill their empty hearts. Unwittingly maybe, the educated elite do as they are trained to do―to medicate and to stand in the way of sinners ever finding the greatest Friend known to mankind.

He is “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.

He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.

But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (Jn. 1:9-13).

We are made for fellowship with God, and nothing will satisfy until we are fully returned to His fellowship. A myriad of other solutions only causes confusion.

“Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” (Rev. 18:2).

We’ve foundered on garbage and floor sweepings; our souls are filled with dry, disgusting bacteria-laden germs and poisons. Nothing in this world satisfies anymore: “gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men,” (Rev. 18:12,13) its all tasteless and insufficient without our Father in heaven.

“That great city Babylon [shall] be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.” “And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee…: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries [Gr. pharmakeia] were all nations deceived.” (Rev. 18: 21,23).

But, “light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.” (Psa. 97:11). “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it.” (Matt. 16:25).

Those who have hoped in God’s acceptance and believed His Son’s provision of mercy, they have hope; they find purpose in the love of God and the love they have for Him and for all of His children. They live by the original model—the Edenic faith and love. They have simplicity and primitive godliness. Jesus is near to them, and He is the light of the world. Connected with Him, they are reunited with His Father and with a world of sinners, “both bad and good.” (Matt. 22:10).

Like my dog Pingo, they may not have many possessions, but they are joyful and happy in fellowship and love.