Similes of Our Saving God: God Is Like … Our Golden Retriever

Similes of Our Saving God: God Is Like … Our Golden Retriever

I’m on vacation for a few weeks, but I wanted to still share new posts while I’m gone.  However, I didn’t necessarily want to create them while vacationing, so I cheated.  Kinda, anyway.  I pulled the concepts and words from a sermon series I preached a number of years ago and consolidated them into blog posts.  Consequently, these posts are a bit longer than usual.  However, as always, I pray you find them interesting and encouraging.  Dave

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Perhaps the words, “God Is Like … Our Golden Retriever” seems a bit of a reach, and perhaps even bordering on sacrilegious.  But remember, this is a simile.  I didn’t say the Lord IS a dog; I said he is LIKE our dog … which happens to be a Golden Retriever named Bailey.

Please realize that I am not looking for an excuse to write about our pet.  I like our dog a lot, but he and I have had our moments.  My family can tell you that there have been times – especially when he was younger – that I would just as soon have gotten rid of him as have him around.

So how is God like our Golden Retriever?  Well, Golden Retrievers are fairly unique in some ways.  Here is how they are described by Linda Whitwam in “The Complete Golden Retriever Handbook:”

“This strikingly handsome dog with a wonderful temperament, intelligence, love of humans and great desire to please his owners has become one of the most popular breeds on the planet. … [Goldens are] affectionate and loyal, gentle, honest, good-natured and gets on well with people of all ages.”

There are actually a number of characteristics Golden Retrievers exhibit that beautifully picture our loving Lord.  But there is one trait specifically that I would like to use as a simile to God.  It’s a trait that I have not seen as strongly in any other dog we have had, either when I was a child or with any dogs I have owned as an adult.  (But then none of the other dogs we had were Golden Retrievers either.)

Here’s what Bailey does that I have never seen demonstrated so strongly in any other dog we have owned.  This is the trait that reminds me so much of our Saving God: Bailey’s greatest desire in life is to be as close as he possibly can be to anyone in our family!  He would choose being close to people over any other thing.  And I mean any other thing!

For example, when we take his food out to him, he would rather be petted and close to us than eat his meal.  I am convinced that he could be ravenously hunger, and he would still ignore his food if he has the opportunity to be petted instead.

Since he stays outside, (almost a necessity due to his constant shedding), he will always try to lie down by the door nearest to family members.  Ideally, he will park himself outside the sliding door on our deck or by our living room where he can actually see us and be as close to us as possible.  Or if I am working on something in the back yard where he stays, he will remain as close to me while I am working as he possibly can.  If I am in the garage, Bailey will be in the garage too.  If I am in the front yard, Bailey will be lying by whichever fence is the closest to where I am.

I have actually had to train him to give me space so I could work.  If he had his choice, he would have his face right in the middle of whatever I am doing.  I mean that literally!  I had to train him to lie down nearby.  If I didn’t, he would never let me get anything done.

And those of you who are dog owners are perhaps thinking, “Well, that doesn’t sound much different than my dog.  Dogs always want to be close to their owners.”

To which I would reply, “Yes, I know that is the case.  But this is different.  This is a whole different level of longing to be close than most other dogs exhibit.”

Perhaps this will illustrate the degree to which Bailey longs to be close to us.  When we took Bailey on his first camping trip, he loved it.  So many little animals in the forest to smell.  So many other dogs to interact with.  So many other people to pet him.  A lake to splash in.  Forest trails to walk on. 

And the best thing of all – his family all stayed outside with him!  We cooked outside, ate outside, played games outside, and even slept outside in tents.  So Bailey was able to be close to us the entire time!  He loved it.

But he was not content to simply lie nearby.  Bailey continually plopped himself as absolutely close to us as he possibly could.  And I don’t mean simply settling down comfortably at the end of his chain.  That’s what most dogs would do.  They would get as close to their people as their leashes would allow and settle comfortably there.

But that’s not what Bailey did.  We had his chain anchored so that he could reach most of our campsite.  However, the length was set so that he couldn’t quite reach our picnic table (and be “obnoxious” while we were sitting there).  So this is what Bailey did: he stretched his chain to its absolute limit and laid down behind our feet.  And when he laid down, the chain was actually suspended in the air!

Can you imagine how uncomfortable that would be?  Yet he did this repeatedly.  And he would sleep there like that while we did other things at the table, lying as close to us as he possibly could with his chain suspended in the air!

I’ve never seen anything like it before.  But Bailey did it because that allowed him to be as close to us as possible.  And this isn’t just a Bailey thing; this is a Golden Retriever thing.

I think it was on that camping trip that I first thought of the simile that our God is like a Golden Retriever.  Just like Bailey longs to be as close to us as possible, so our God longs to be as close to us as possible.  And not just occasionally, but constantly!   Always!  If Bailey had his way, he would never be further than a few feet away from anyone in our family.  So it is with God.

If our Lord had his way, he would always be as close to us as he possibly could be.  God’s greatest desire is to be close to us … to be embraced by us.  God wants that to be the case throughout our lives here on earth, and throughout all of eternity in heaven.

“But wait a minute” you might say, “the Bible shows us that God is omnipresent (present everywhere).  If God is present everywhere, then by definition isn’t he always close to us?”  Perhaps you would even quote the words of Psalm 139 (below) or the Apostle Paul’s words to the Athenians?  “‘God … is not far from any one of us’” (Acts 17:27).

Yes, God is indeed always close, technically speaking.  But not necessarily close like God desires.

It’s like this.  If you attend a concert or a ballgame with your spouse, the two of you are sitting side-by-side.  You are close to each other.  You can chat, hold hands, even kiss.  Meanwhile on the other side of each of you is another person … a stranger.  You are as physically close to them as you are to your spouse, but you aren’t really close to them at all, are you?

And so it is with our Lord.  He is always close to us.  But he isn’t always “close.”

He longs to talk with us through his Word.  He longs to hear from us in our prayers.  He longs to touch us in his love.  He longs to surround us with his care and presence.

So why then isn’t God “close” to us?  Because we distance ourselves from him.

We don’t read his love notes to us in his Bible.  We don’t listen to his messages of love in his Word.  We don’t bring ourselves into his presence in God’s House.  We don’t communicate with him regularly in prayer.  We don’t avail ourselves of the opportunities to allow him to draw closer to us.  We keep ourselves so busy and distracted that we don’t have time for our Lord.  Our God is longing to come closer to us, but we hold him at a distance.

Just like Bailey wants to be as close to our family as he possibly can, so our Lord wants to be as close to us as we will allow.  Yet all too often we tell God to “lie down” nearby.

Now this is a necessary and good approach with dogs.  But this is NOT a wise or good approach with God.  Yet we do it all the time!

“God, I’ll give you attention when I have time.” 

“Lord, I’ll spend time with you soon.”

“Savior, I know you long to be closer to me, but I can’t be bothered with you at the moment.”

You know what we should be saying to the Lord?  Each and every one of us should be saying,

“Jesus, I repent for not longing to be as close to you as you long to be close to me!”

“Savior, forgive me for my negligence of your Word!”

“Lord, have mercy on me a sinner!”

Dear Christian friends, thanks be to God that he has had mercy on us.  Our Heavenly Father has forgiven us because Jesus made everything right with him for us.

The sinners on earth (you and me!) continually push God away.  We repeatedly distance ourselves from God with our incessant sinning.  But instead of saying, “Fine, if you want no part of me, so be it,” the Lord said, “That’s not fine with me; I will intervene.  I will come close to you!”

And that’s what Jesus, the Son of God, did!  He came to earth, born as a little baby boy, in order to live a perfect life of complete dedication to the Lord, and then to offer his holy life as a perfect payment for our neglect of God and sin against God.  On that bloody Roman cross is your Savior, come to earth to you, to restore your relationship with him.

God is God, and he not only longs to stay close to us, he actually does stay close to us.  God’s love and his presence are always with us.  As the Apostle Paul writes so beautifully:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35, 37-39).

Are significant life changes on the horizon for us?  Is our employment status changing?  Are money problems stressing us out?  Are health difficulties, hospital visits, or surgery in our future?  Are we concerned about car troubles or major house repairs?  Are we facing a family crisis?  Are we emotionally frayed to the breaking point?  Our loving God is with us!

No matter where life may take us, or where we may have to journey.  No matter what we face or where we are.  No matter our situation, our loving God is close by.  In fact, he is with us!  Even closer – much closer – than a Golden Retriever!

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Psalm 139:1-10

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 

You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

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