When a child loses their beloved pet, they bid farewell to a close friend, a friend they were not prepared to part ways with. So it is natural that the experience can be an incredibly difficult one for them to handle. Inevitably, with tearful eyes, the little child asks the question, "Why did God take my pet?" And it is up to the parents to take this sorrowful moment and turn it into a time of consolation and gentle instruction.
were good friends.
One endearing fact about this little dog is that he was always begging to receive tummy rubs. No matter what I was doing, be it studying, washing laundry, typing on my laptop, or reading, Ritter would always come by and roll over at my feet, his eyes imploring me to bring him a few precious moments of pleasure.
Despite his diminutive size, Ritter acted like a true guard dog. Whenever a car would pull up into the driveway, Ritter was the first to announce the visitor's arrival by his peculiar bark. As soon as the door was opened, he would dash out, making sure the intruder meant no harm. When all was confirmed to be beyond suspicion, he would calmly trot back into the house, confident that his borders were secure.
These are just a few of the habits which endeared little Ritter to me. And so, when my host family tearfully informed me of his sudden death, I was very grieved. And it was shortly after this event, as I was searching for words to comfort the girls in the family, that I began to ask the question, "What can I learn about death and tragedy from this experience?" So here are some of the answers I came up with:
1) How God brings us joy throughout our lives in small ways. I didn't realize how much I liked having Ritter around until he was gone. God used this little creature to bring my host family and I many small joys each day. And when we lost those joys, it was a reminder to thank God for the blessings He had given us, if only for a short season.
2) How easily our world is shattered by reminders of our mortality. In the average happy homeschooling Christian family, its easy to forget how fragile and temporary our life is on Earth. Losing Ritter reminded all of us in the house that death is still very real and unavoidable. "It is appointed for men to die once, and after this judgment." (Heb. 9:27). I realized that we must be reminded from time to time that we, as believers, are sojourners on this Earth. We are "seeking a better country, that is, a heavenly one." (Heb. 11:16a). While we rejoice in the joys and pleasures which God gives us in this life, we must not forget that sin and death are still very real consequences in this world.
3) How incomparable Christ's constant grace and love is in a world full of change and fading glory. No matter how often our little world is rocked by unexpected sorrow and tragedy, we can take great comfort that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Heb. 13:8) Greater is He who is in us, than he who is in the world. Our Lord has conquered death, and so we need not be alarmed or overly distressed by the reminder that even the Christian must someday return to the dust. Death no longer is the stronger, and we await eagerly the day when we will be raised up to forever inhabit a world where righteousness dwells, and death is banished, never to return.
4) A chance to practice godly sorrow and grieving now so that when an even greater tragedy strikes, we will be better prepared to handle it. In the big scheme of things, losing a pet is not a big tragedy. At the very least, it is not as severe as losing a parent, sibling, or child. Someday, though I hate to think about it, I will have to bid farewell to those whom I dearly love. But God gives us small tragedies to develop a godly response to the greater tragedies in life. Hopefully, I will learn now practices and a mindset which will be much needed when I lose a loved one.
Lastly, I think that God takes away our little pets in order that we may learn to enjoy the joys He gives us to the fullest, while we still have them. Ecclesiastes 5:18 says,
"Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward."
Throughout our lives, we receive good gifts from our loving heavenly Father (Matt. 7:11). Unexpected tragedies force us to learn to appreciate and thank Him daily for the gifts He gives us. These same tragedies also cause us to strive for greater dependence on God, finding all our comfort and solace in Him. At the end of the day, we should try to use the opportunities presented by unexpected tragedy to imitate Job, who lost everything and still could say with all his heart:
"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Someday, when I have my own family of little boys and girls (Lord willing), and they lose a dear pet friend, I hope to use the unique opportunity to pick them up, hold them in my arms, and tell them that, hard as it may be to say goodbye, this is what God knows is best and that someday, just as their daddy is wiping away the tears from their eyes, their Heavenly Father will wipe away every tear from their eyes and welcome them into His Kingdom, "where there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." (Rev. 21:4).
Perhaps, this teaching moment will transform the unexpected tragedy into a blessing in disguise.
Soli Deo Gloria
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