Dave Edgren uses his Jack Russell puppy Thor's scratching and biting as a metaphor for human sin. God forgives us repeatedly, like a patient owner with an unruly puppy, and Jesus' death proves that forgiveness. Edgren calls listeners to forgive others the same way, transforming themselves and others into Christ-like love.
Chapters
I have a question for you. Can anyone see my hand? Can you guys see my hand? Is there anything wrong with it? Some of you are not close enough. Come closer. Is there anything wrong with my hand? You don't notice? Really? It hurt? Nobody notices? What do I have on my arm? All the way up there and all the way down to there. What do you— do you see the marks? I'm a wimp, obviously. They're like, "Nah, that didn't hurt." What do you think caused all these little marks all over my arm? I'd show you my legs, but somebody out there would take me to hospital. I like to wear shorts. What do you think happened? A cat? Not a cat. We have 2 grown cats, and yes, one of them does run across to me in the bed when I'm asleep. That hurts. But it's more startling than anything. But no, we got something The opposite, if you can say opposite, of a cat? Yeah, so what's a baby one of those called? Puppy. Yeah, okay, you got it, a puppy. So I got a little Jack Russell and his name is Thor, and he has a white thing like this on his forehead and then his whole nose is white, so it looks like a hammer, Thor's hammer. And so I gave him that name and not realizing that I was setting myself up for disaster because Thor has claws and teeth, and even though he's only about this long and about that high, when Thor is playing, oh my goodness, he's violent. He's scratchy and he bites. And when he did all of this to me, the first time that he did that one, I just went in the car and I put him in the car and I took him back and gave him back. Do you think I did that? No, I didn't. What about the second time when Thor scratched me right down there? Do you think I just said, "Fine, you're going in your pen and I'm never playing with you again"? No? Why would I keep getting the little puppy back out over and over and over again even though it was hurting me? Does anyone want to have a stab at why I would get a puppy out when it keeps hurting me over and over? Yeah? My dog keeps scratching me on the arm. You got the same problem. Your dog keeps scratching you on the arm. Yeah. Yep. Because you love him. Yes, because I love him. And do you think Thor thinks to himself, Oh, here he comes again. I can't wait to hurt them again. No, he doesn't think that at all. He thinks, oh, my favorite friend. I get to play with my favorite. Oh, he gets all excited. And sometimes he just goes, oops. Oh no, mess. You have to clean that up. And I forgive him for that as well. And you know, when we think about how God feels about us, did you guys know that sometimes we're messy and sometimes we do the wrong thing? Sometimes we If I'm mean to someone else, did you know that it makes God sad when I'm mean to someone else? If I say mean things, that's kind of like biting with my words. Rrrr! And God still says, "I still love him because he didn't do it to hurt me. He just did it because he's a puppy. He's just learning." Dave's still learning how to be nice. And sometimes we scratch, sometimes we're mean to other people, we actually do mean things. And God says, "I still love him." I'll still teach him and care for him. And he never says to me, well, I'm not ever picking you up again. I'm never forgiving you again. God forgives us over and over and over. You know, there are so many verses. I was looking through what verse to choose for today, but it depends on what way you look at it. But over and over and over, God is like somebody who owns a puppy in the way he loves us. It says, while we were yet terrible scratchy bitey people, sinners. While we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us. He gave everything for us because he loved us. That's it. That's the reason why he did it. And there's also a verse in Psalms that says basically God forgives you, he forgives all of us because he knows what we are and that we're made out of dust. So God, one day, right, he got down in the dirt and he made a man. And then a little bit later in the day, he made another one, and he made a woman, but he made them out of mud. So he started with dust, and he put them together. And Adam actually means dirt, and so— or ground. And so he named dude from the dirt Adam. And he loved Adam so much that he doesn't just say, "Oh well, if you can't be good and you can't do everything I want, I'm not ever gonna be your friend anymore." He says, "I love you so much," because I know where I found you, I found you in the dirt, and I'm gonna keep loving you until— and this is what it says, Jesus died for us on the cross, right? And from then, he keeps loving us and we become more and more and more loving the more that we're loved. So the more that I love Thor and the more that I train him, no biting, no scratching, and he learns what that means, my love will slowly change Thor into being an obedient dog. And while he's a puppy, all puppies are scratchy and bitey. And all of us, as we're growing in Christ, we're scratchy and bitey sometimes. But Jesus keeps loving us and he keeps forgiving us and he keeps saying, "You're becoming more and more like the one that I created you to be." So sometimes you might have somebody who's a bit scratchy or bitey in your life. Don't tell me who. Somebody who hurts you, somebody who says mean things. You can forgive them because Jesus loves them, and Jesus says, "I forgive them, you can forgive them too." It's hard to do, but the more we do that, that's us becoming like Jesus and becoming more and more loving because we can feel his love. Thank you for listening so much to my story. I almost brought Thor, but I thought of all the bad things that could happen on the carpet and scratching people, and so he's still at home doing good Thor things. Thank you for listening to my story. And have a good Sabbath.
