As-Is

I have a dog named Lucy. She is a 10-pound, champagne-colored, Maltese-Poodle mix. Her favorite activity is sitting as close as humanly (or doggy) possible to me. She has no sense of personal space, so if given the opportunity, she will choose to lie directly on top of me. Every day. All the time. Even when I’m upset with her and have scolded her.

I don’t know if Lucy believes in God, but if she does, I’m fairly certain she equates me with God—or at least His right-hand woman. I can do no wrong in her eyes. Whenever I leave, whether it’s for five minutes or five days, I am greeted with a welcome that rivals a ticker-tape parade. I can ignore her for hours and she never gives up on me; she keeps trying to wheedle her way onto my lap to show me love.

So I had to laugh when I saw this quote on a church sign near our home: “Be the person your dog thinks you are.”

There’s no way I could ever be the person Lucy thinks I am. It would be an impossible task. I’ve thought about that church sign a lot. I wish it had instead said something to the effect of, “God loves you even more than your dog loves you.”

You see, while our dogs may think we’re perfect, God knows how very imperfect we are. And while our dogs think we’re God’s gift to this earth, God sent His Son to be God’s gift to this earth. We don’t need to be the person our dogs think we are. God loves us as is. And that, my friend, is true love.

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 (NLT)