My friend, Pastor
Rick the Lutheran,
staged an event at a
Providence animal hospital today--a "blessing of the animals." Joy
and I thought it might be fun to see how to bless animals, so we took our
pet--Tasha, the Codependent Dog,
down
to get blessed.
First let me put out
some disclaimers for my Presbyterian brethren.
- No, I'm not becoming
a Lutheran.
- No, I do not think that
blessing an animal somehow makes them a Christian animal since we know that no
animal cannot properly be called "Christian" without a thorough knowledge
of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
- No I am not
encouraging blessing animals as a regular part of worship in a sanctuary.
We really just
wanted to see my friends from the Lutheran church. Plus,
if you know Tasha the Codependent Dog,
it was worth a try to help improve her behavior.
We put Tasha in the
convertible with the top down. She rode
in the back seat, nose in the wind, happy as I've ever seen her. We arrived a little late for the ceremony.
Pastor Rick was already in full homiletical bloom, quoting Genesis 1:26-28 and telling how we
have dominion of the earth in order to care for God's lesser creatures. I agree,
though I am little disturbed to think that the same verses, when applied
to pigs, cows, and chickens have a somewhat different nuance.
At any rate, it was
a good service. He prayed that God would
bless the families there and their furry companions. Then we all recited the Lord's Prayer. I could not help but think while praying it
what "deliver us from temptation" might mean to a dog, if they could
understand it. Somehow I hoped it might
cause Tasha not to jump on other dogs in the crowd. No such luck
. Tasha, whatever her inner condition,
remained unsanctified in her behavior.
Then Vicar Josh, Rick's assistant passed through the group
blessing the dogs one by one.
Apparently, Vicar Josh was fluent in dog, because he knew just what to
do. He rolled
them over and scratched their tummies! While this probably would not
work on human parishioners, it seemed to
work wonders on the dogs, since they
thumped their feet and lolled around with their tongues out of their
mouths. I have never seen such bliss in
a human congregation at the administration of the benediction. If they ever did, it would be--well,
frightening.
Afterwards, I hung around for a while to speak with
Pastor Rick, while Joy walked Tasha the
Codependent Dog around the hospital yard.
I cannot say whether Tasha enjoyed it , or whether she converted to
Lutheranism, but I will say this, she
did her best to spread the blessing around, by sprinkling the yard.
