For the purposes of keeping it simple I considered the four most common companion animals: dogs, cats, birds and fish – to see if they reveal any of the patterns of faith we see from time to time.
It seems to me that fish basically want to be fed but otherwise left alone. As a diver, I know that fish do have personalities which are much easier to engage face to face and hand to fin. But the personalities I’ve seen have more to do with curiosity and aggressiveness or passivity. In my experience, they’re not thinkers in any practical sense. (Exceptions with porpoises duly noted.)
Birds, especially parrots, can be trained to repeat some rather complex words and phrases and do interesting tricks for treats. Some have very cute personalities and they do develop an attachment to people (for good or ill.) However, in my experience, they’re not big thinkers, I doubt they understand most of what they say and little of what I say to them.
Cats are a whole ‘nother deal. They seem to understand what I say and sense my mood. But of all the companion animals I’ve owned, they are absolutely the most willful. They will come to me only when it is in their own self-interest to do so. Of course, when they do, they are a joy to cuddle. They are very, very difficult to train (at least for me.)
In my experience, most dogs have great humility. You can ignore them – even be mean to them – but they’ll still come back, wagging tail and looking for approval. If they’ve misbehaved, they’ll literally crawl whimpering for forgiveness. They enjoy being included in drives around time and such. And they are much easier to train because they seem to understand not only the body language but the spoken commands.
So, do I see any parallels to the attitude of believers? Based on my experience with these companion animals, you betcha! And thank you for pointing it out!
I hope your conference is a great success. Hugs!!!
should be
They enjoy being included in drives around town and such.