[A little piece of original fiction that crossed my mind. Blah blah copyright blah blah yada. -CJ]
“You! Pee-wee. Tell us about your God.”
“God gives us love. God gives us shelter. God gives us food. God is kind and loving, mostly. But God can be vengeful when we don’t do what is expected. So, it’s important to do what is right.”
“Uh-huh. How about you, Roland?”
“That’s not what God is like at all. God requires you to be obedient. You must never forget that you are a servant of God. God is firm, but compassionate when needed. Doing right is too vague. You do what God commands, for what God commands is, by definition, right.”
“Missy, what about you? What’s God to you?”
“God has been my salvation. I used to be wild. I gave birth not long after I ran away from home, but all of my babies were taken away. I grew angry and spiteful. I didn’t care what happened to me, and I lost my freedom. It was then, knowing that if I stayed on that course I would surely die, that I decided to change my life. I vowed that I would devote my life to God, and I have never regretted it. I was freed and given a new life; a life I could only imagine before. If you give yourself voluntarily and freely to God, then all things are possible.”
“That’s a lie!”
“Yes, Chip, do you have something to add?”
“Yeah. There is no God. Certainly not a loving God that’s all hugs and kisses. God doesn’t keep you warm outside on a cold night. When you are kicked in the gut, God doesn’t lick your wounds — you have to do it yourself. Life’s a struggle, and that’s just the way it is. There is no great power that controls my life.”
There was silence for a few moments when Missy asked, “Which one of us is right, Duke? Do you know?”
Duke thought about his answer and said, “You are all right. God is what your experience of God is, how could it be otherwise? And yet, you are all loved…yes, even you, Chip, just the same regardless of your circumstance.”
Roland said, “But that doesn’t make sense. God must have a plan for us, and that means we can’t all be right. You know like I do that some say that God is vengeful, some say God is kind, some say God is this or that. They can’t all be right. One has to be right and the rest of you have to be wrong.”
Duke replied, “Let me put it this way. If you had ten children, you would love and treat each and every one differently according to the individuals they were. But you would also love them all, fundamentally, just the same. Some might require more discipline, some more comforting, and some might want nothing better than to be out on their own. That doesn’t change your love, just the trappings of how you are able to express your love. It’s that way with God. Whether we are big or small, or tough or meek, or strong or weak, God is still there. And yes, sometimes it seems like there’s no hope, that you are all alone, but I wager that if you made the effort to get closer to God, in whatever guise, then your belly will be full.”
As if on cue, every member of this eclectic group stood and looked into the distance. Heading a familiar call, Pee-wee, Roland, Missy, and Duke each went off in different directions with barely a by-your-leave. Chip went back down on his belly and put his muzzle on his front paws. “Ridiculous,” he thought. “There’s nothing out there worth running after.”
The golden lab with the patches of sap on his coat closed his eyes for a quick nap before heading back to the crate in the alley that was his home. He didn’t immediately notice the girl with a smudge of dirt on her cheek walking over with a grin on her face and tears welling up in her eyes. Some time later, Chip would mention to another group of dogs that, “Sometimes you find God, and sometimes God finds you.”
Chip treasured every day of the next nineteen years of his very full and long life, never once doubting that he was loved.
