Lessons From Luther the Lab

As a kid, like many of you, I wanted a dog. As it turned out, my family didn’t get on board with that idea until I was 22 years old. And so it was that the summer after I graduated college, Luther the Labrador came to live with us.

By that point I had lost my fascination with wanting a pet. But Luther had come to us from another family, so he was well trained and a bit on the older side and very mellow. Therefore, there wasn’t a whole lot we had to do with him. He was housetrained, and when inside, he would lie down and let us bury our feet under him to warm them up. He seemed to enjoy running laps in the backyard and barking at the opossums scaling our fence at night, but was intimidated by the neighbor’s Chihuahua that yapped at him all the time—even though he was four times that little dog’s size.

Since Luther did a lot of running around in our backyard, we didn’t have to take him on daily walks. But there was one time I attempted to. Luther was large and heavy. When he wanted to stop and look at something, I didn’t have the strength to drag him away. He also managed to slip out of his collar that was connected to the leash. Lucky for me, he didn’t take off down the street. In fact, he stood there waiting for me to get the collar back on him. That’s when I decided we just needed to go home before I really did lose him.

Luther had the shiniest black coat of fur. It was so dark that at night if there was no light in the yard, it was hard to spot him. Luther also liked to lie out in the shade of our lemon tree when it was hot outside. At night, when he came inside for bedtime, he curled up in a big, soft dog bed, and he sometimes snored.

I got married and moved away the year after we got Luther, so I didn’t have that much time with him. The memory of him running laps around our backyard still makes me smile.

While Luther was around for a short time, there were a few things he taught me that I’d like to share with you.

1 Animals are very special creatures. The way they sense things in people and provide comfort and companionship are gifts.

2 Luther might have been a big dog, but he was tenderhearted, and we felt that. It’s important to remember to have a soft heart for others.

3 It is important to be kind to animals, as they are creatures created by God. They have feelings too.

4 Having a big dog around, often acting in funny ways, showed me that God has a sense of humor. If you have a pet, you probably understand that.

5 God has much to teach us through our interactions with animals and the natural world— keep your eyes open!

Bible Treasure

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:7-10, NIV