We have two recent additions to our family. They arrived a few weeks apart, and these little ones are cute and adorable. They can’t talk, but we feel like they can communicate through the little noises they make. They are nursed and cuddled and very well looked after.
We are now the owners of two guinea pigs.
But it has caused a major upheaval in our household. Not with the humans, but with our dog.
Our dog has a bit of this, bit of that, but is primarily an English Springer Spaniel with a fair bit of whippet. Can’t you just picture these breeds of dogs in their natural state? Little furry creatures that scurry along the ground and through long grass are precisely what they were born to chase.
So our dog is beside himself. He is just super keen to get these creatures into his mouth. So he will attack the hutch incessantly. Scratching, yelping, lunging.
My kids were shocked when I meted out some discipline. A few smacks on the rump to let him know that I did not want him annoying the life out of our little guinea pigs – literally.
“Don’t do that, Dad. Poor dog. He can’t help it”
My response, “He needs to learn obedience over instinct.”
As soon as I said it, I thought of a spiritual parallel.
The Bible says that we have all been born with instincts, and that our natural instincts are to tend towards behaving in ways that are displeasing to God. Our instincts pull us towards greed, selfishness, disregard for others, prejudice and a whole range of things that we do that are in conflict with God’s designs for the world.
God gave the ancient Israelites some commandments, ten in all, but Jesus distilled them down to two – love God and love others. Yet this loving others bit goes against our instincts. See it’s not just loving people that we like and get along with, but we’re called to show love to all people, like them or not, whether they’ve hurt us or had conflict with us or wronged us. And that’s hard.
And I feel like God says, “It’s hard – but you need to learn obedience over instinct”. And through that obedience we demonstrate our love of God. Because when we disobey, and go according to our human instincts, and don’t show love to others, we separate ourselves from God.
Obedience over instinct.
Just as well for me that God offers forgiveness too.
www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington
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