How DOG is much like GOD

Dogs are a good model of God’s unconditional love, Günther Simmermacher suggests in this light-hearted article which seeks to point to God’s great love for us.

When God wanted to show an example of his perfect love, he created dog. This wisdom was often quoted by the late Southern Cross columnist Owen Williams, who in turn had picked it up from a Greek friend in Cape Town.

Dog owners need no persuasion that Owen’s friend issued an incontrovertible fact. Cat lovers might object to dog’s slobbering ways and post-rain smells, and their preferred pet may also be good at intuiting when their owners need comfort, but such humans also know perfectly well who’s the boss in that relationship.

Dog, on the other hand, knows who’s the boss. Humour expresses a truth: “Dog looked at man and said: ‘You house me, you feed me, you pet me, you love me. You must be God!’ And cat looked at man and said: ‘You house me, you feed me, you pet me, you love me. I must be God!’”

Of course, neither human nor cat is God. God is God. And God is far more like dog than he is like cat, or indeed like human. Like dog, God loves us unconditionally, waits for us patiently, and delights in it when we come to him. And, like dog, God protects us (but, unlike dog, requires no training).

God protects us even when we, arrogant humans, think we don’t need his shield. Dog is like that, too. Our older dog, a rescue labrador/shepherd named Sami, is very protective of us. He is a bit neurotic, but don’t let him perceive any threat to us or his teeth will bare!

Saved from acute danger

One day, we were walking the dogs when a kindly grandfather with his granddaughter of about five approached us from the opposite direction. As they were about to pass, Sami growled at the little girl, warning her off any criminal designs.

I must admit, I found the scene a little emasculating — my dog took the firm view that I’d be incapable of fending off the aggression of a five-year-old girl without his aid — but I was grateful to know that Sami had my back. Much like God always has my back.

Our younger dog, a German shepherd named Sansa, would doubtless intervene on my behalf should other larcenous preschoolers try to mug me, but her superpower is to love extravagantly. If she has not seen me for a couple of hours, she greets with an exuberance that never fails to inject pure joy into my heart. She gets so excited that her back part wiggles in a different rhythm to her front.

Pure love, always available

Sansa loves to hug (not the human embrace — dogs don’t really like those — but by pressing her body against my legs), and when I’m feeling a little down, usually after my favourite football team has lost again, she may give comfort by putting her head on my chest.

Sansa’s love is pure and always available, even if I have been ignoring her or failed to take her walkies.

This is exactly what God’s love is like. Of course, God doesn’t wait for walkies, but he waits for our prayer. Sometimes I love going for a long walk with our dogs; other times there are more pressing things to do. (Before you report me to the authorities, the dogs have a big garden to run around in, and frequently go out twice a day. They’re fine.) Such pressing tasks may be work-related, or an afternoon nap. In the case of the latter, Sansa will patiently lie at the door and wait for me to get up, in the hope that we might go for a walk or play.

God is always waiting for us to talk to him. He won’t wag a tail when we start praying, but he will be pleased that we make time for him. And, maybe a bit like Sansa and Sami, he may wonder why our life doesn’t always revolve completely around him.

Long walks, long talks

Let’s face it, many of us find it difficult to make time for meditative prayer — to go “for a long walk” with God. And yet, just as it is good for our physical health to take the dog for a long walk, it is good for our spiritual health to have a long talk with God.

I suspect that what sometimes may stand in the way of praying is our guilt at not having prayed, or not having prayed often or well enough. We may have neglected God, and then neglect him more because we imagine God might not want to hear from us. We may feel unworthy.

The good news is that God loves us unconditionally, whether we are like the hardworking son in the parable or like his prodigal brother. Whatever our faults or neglect or sins, God never ceases to love us intensely.

And when we humans did not realise the unconditional nature of his love, God indeed created dog, so that we may be reminded of it.

Published in the February 2025 issue of The Southern Cross magazine