When my children were young, we had a beautiful collie dog named 'Feet' that went missing.  He would never have left on his own, so we knew he had been stolen.   I kept telling the children, "It's just a dog."   I had never been an animal person and I looked at the dog as just another kid to clean up after.  He was never allowed in the house because I wasn't going to vacuum up dog hair up every day. I didn't know at the time that dogs had personalities!!!  I figured they were like turtles.  They needed to live outside.  The only difference of one from the other was size and color.

But  one day I opened the front door  and there was Feet, lying on the porch facing the door with his head between his paws.  His paw pads were bleeding and missing skin.  He had found his way home from some place far away and suffered great injury in doing do.

I brought him into the kitchen, cleaned his paws with warm water and put cream on them.  He licked my fingers.  He stayed in the house that day.  I realized that even though I hadn't loved him, he had loved me.  Someone has to love someone first.

Now I know about dogs.  They are all very different.  A few weeks ago I had six of them in my house all at once.  They all had very different personalities.  And one was my favorite.  He sleeps with me.  Where I go, he goes.  His name is Squig, and this morning he is getting his teeth cleaned for the first time.  And I am praying (!!!) for my dog that he will come through this safely.  My children all say, "Is this our mother???  Who is this woman??"

Someone has to love someone first before we can know what love is, what it looks like, how it feels.
1 John 4: 19  "We love him, because he first loved  us."

After Peter realized how much Jesus loved him, he was never the same.  When he writes something, he is passionate about it.  Do you think Peter had a dog that followed him on his journeys?? I hope so.