Accepting One Another

 Most of us know what it is to lose a pet: cats, dogs, birds, hamsters, others.  They are all short lived compared to our own life expectancy.  In our lifetime we will likely experience the emotions of burying one or more of our furry and feathered friends.  Two years ago we laid down our tri-color Corgi, Buddy.  We never forget these special friends who share portions of our life-journey.

 When we found Buddy at Corgi rescue, he had been picked up off the streets.  He was skinny and sick. They called him, “Tex.”  But he quickly informed us that his real name was “Buddy.”  In fact he has a children’s book, Buddy the Floppy Ear Corgi that tells his whole story, not just about his name, but how he was lost, picked up by the “dog police” and rescued.  I wrote it “just the way he told it to me.” According to the story, he learned to accept himself and others just the way God made them. Throughout his life, he continued to teach me lessons.  Those lessons included trust, patience, and perseverance.

 But one of his most important lessons, however,  was “acceptance.”  In an era when humans are increasingly aware of their differences in race, language, culture and national origin, Buddy ignored all of those.  He just saw people, and he accepted them all.

 I took him for a walk through the park.  An entire group of teenagers interrupted their volley ball game and rushed over to greet Buddy.  They surrounded him, laughing and smiling as they stroked his Corgi coat.  We went to Estes Park.  Four times in the space of two blocks, teens, children and adults asked to pet him.  We passed a homeless person. Buddy stopped and waited until a smile spread across the person’s face as they patted his head.

 It didn’t matter to Buddy.  He just grinned his Corgi grin, and accepted them all.  Young, old, white, brown, black, homeless, handicapped, straight or gay.  He didn’t care. It is a lesson humans have to work at.  We tend to look for people like ourselves and suspect those who differ.

 Like the rest of us, the disciple Peter grew up with his own prejudices.  He was a fisherman and a Jew from Capernaum.  After he left his nets to follow Jesus he was constantly having his prejudices challenged.  He followed Jesus through Samaria, a region he had been taught to avoid as a Jew.   He watched Him visit with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well near Sychar.   He saw him touch and heal the lepers, the blind, the lame and beggars. 

 It took a miraculous vision and a visit to a Roman’s home in Caesarea for Peter to finally understand the lessons Jesus sought to teach him along the way.  Peter concluded, “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him” (Acts 10:34-35).