A Religious Canine

Doggy lives just across the street, in a mansion with spacious backyard and many fruit trees. He’s a good friend of mine, and he treats me as if I’m one of his masters. His owners are seldom home and the caretakers know almost nothing of canine health, so whenever I’ve got spare time, I’d go to his house to bathe him and give him his monthly dose of vermicide.
He loves every visit I give him because there’s no one around who pets him. I like befriending him -- he’s a very sweetly-disposed Dobermann and the most religious dog I’ve ever known.

Religious???

Oh, yes. Believe it or not, Doggy always prays five times a day!
Whenever the muadzin in our village's mosque begins chanting the adzan (prayer call), he would lift up his head and howl – and he won’t stop until the chant ends!
Sometimes, I am embarrassed when noting this habit of his, because I often forget to say my prayers!
“Shame on you!” I sometimes say to myself. “Even the neighbor’s Dobermann is more faithful in keeping the religious duty, though he’s got no idea what religion is!”

There are plenty of blessings in store for those who are faithful in keeping God’s law and requirements: the blessing of eternal salvation, the blessing in the afterlife, the blessing in the present life, the blessing of long life, the blessing of offspring, the blessing of prosperity, and the list goes on.
Nevertheless, amid the trials and sufferings of life, we sometimes falter and begin questioning whether or not God’s promises stand: the promise that He preserves the lives of those who are faithful to Him, the promise of His never-ending blessings.
God is not man that He should turn back on His word!

· Malachi 3:16-18 “Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. ‘They shall be Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’ Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”

· Malachi 4:2 “But to you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.”

· Number 11:23b “Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not."

Take Doggy for instance!
This dog, who has never missed a single prayer for more than nine years (FYI, a Dobermann living over nine years of age is OLD), has had many companions before. But through all those years, he always outlives each and every companion he ever had: his mother, his old friends, even his young puppy-friends.

Last year, Doggy got run over by a speeding family wagon.
Guess what?
It didn’t kill him!
He managed to get up and walk home with a fractured leg. His owners didn’t take him to a vet, either. He recovers by nature.
Now he can run and play as before, as if nothing had ever happened.
He survives!
The Lord, who gives breath to all creations, is merciful to him.

Now, if that’s the way God rewards a canine for keeping the praying times, how much more will He reward us, “O, ye of little faith?”


UPDATE:
Doggy passed away out of incurable malignant tumor on a late, Thursday afternoon, October 13, 2011 -- at 12 years old.