Why do dogs have tails and people don’t?

Good morning Brothers and Sisters, young people and friends.

As everyone knows, I have a four year old. And these are trying times for my
wife and I as we attempt to guide him God’s Truths. Trying, because he wants to grow
faster than we have the patience to teach him. This is evidenced by the thousands of
seemingly inane questions we answer each and every day. Why do birds fly? Why do
ants have six legs? Why do the clouds blow around when there is no wind? Why do
dogs have tails. Why do people just have two legs when dogs have four. For these
questions we often give the response “that is just the way that God made them”. Of
course he just ponders that for a moment then goes on to the next question. And because
of that standard answer, I think he is starting to catch on that we don’t know everything.
And that is very hard for us. And because of this he has started reasoning these things out
for himself. The other day he asked a question, I think it was the dog leg thing. A little
more than exasperated with the third question in a row, I responded with the usual “For
the same reason that dogs have tails and we don’t, that’s just the way that God made
them.” After a few moments of peace, he popped up on my lap and said, “DaDa, I know
why dogs have tails and we don’t.” “Why is that”, I asked. “Because dogs can’t smile”
he stated matter of factly. Because dogs can’t smile. It took me a moment to get the
connection, but when I did, it was at that moment that I remembered what was to be
taught by the passage we read this morning in Matthew. Now, I am sure you read this
many times and have heard many exhortations on this passage. But let me read it to you
again:

Matthew 18:2-4
(2)And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of
them, (3) And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
(4) Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same
is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Except we become as little children. That’s kind of hard for us to do isn’t it, to be
as children? We get so wrapped up in the details of life that we rarely take the time to
just let our knowledge in the Truth guide us in our daily path. So many of us have been
doing this so long. So many of us were raised in the Truth that without thinking, it has
become just something that we do. We go to meeting, we take the emblems; we do our
readings. Just like we go to work, take the garbage out, do the dishes. We treat those
things that should be separate and incorporate them into out routine. They have become
part of us instead of we being part of them. Just details in our life. And we sometimes
treat those details as chores, just things we do.
That passage in Matthew 18, particularly verses 2-4 calls to mind that each of us
must be as children if we expect to realize the promises made through the rest of the
Biblical text. And just what does that mean? Well, first of all we must treat everything
we do as the first time we have done it.
We must read each chapter, each verse as it were the first time we have laid eyes
on it. We must let the text speak for itself and not let our previous understanding cloud
what the words actually say. One suggestion might be to read several different
translations. One year you might read the King James, the next year a Revised Standard
and so on. In this way, we are not reading the same thing over and over and we might
get a different perspective on what is meant to be understood.
We must Enjoy each meeting that we attend. We must attend with the humble
attitude that we can learn something new each time. As if this we our purpose in
attending in the first place. We must listen intently to the exhortation as if the words will
change us and lead us to a new revelation. And we must remember those words that we
may use them in our day to day lives.
We must receive the emblems as if this is the last time they will be offered, for
that may very well be true. With the events surrounding us today, it seems implausible
that Christ’s return shouldn’t happen in our lifetime.

Secondly we must reverence those things we are commanded to do. We must
separate them so that they do not become just part of our routine.
We must treat the reading of God’s word as if He were speaking to us personally.
We wouldn’t very readily skip an appointment to speak with God now would we. We
wouldn’t let all those little details in life stop us from keeping an appointment with Him.
So why do we let our readings just slip by day by day until at the end of the week we
realize that we are a whole week behind?
We must see that every time we attend the meeting, we are here not to satisfy an
obligation but to honor our Father and give thanks for the sacrifices that have been made
on our behalf. When we sing, we want Him to hear us. When we pray, we want him to
feel our words.
And above all we must receive the emblems as if we were receiving the
fulfillment of the promises. We must be overjoyed that we have been chosen. Our minds
must be cleared of the world around us. Our full concentration should be given to the
gravity of the situation. For this is the time when we should feel the pain that Christ
endured for our sins. We should feel the nails in his wrists, the sweat dripping down his
brow, the heaviness of his breath as the life drained from his body. And we should also
feel the pain in His Father’s heart, our Father. I imagine Him not being able to watch, not
being able to bear this image.
And all of this caused by our sins. The cause was not just our forefathers
partaking of a forbidden piece of fruit, but by the hurtful comment a brother made last
Wednesday, by the hour of television a sister watched instead of reading His word
Thursday, and by the way we all mistrusted the stranger we met last Friday. These are
the reasons that Christ hung on a piece of wood and we should remember them always ,
but especially when we partake of the emblems.
But we should also remember how Christ rose on the third day and was further
glorified by the presence of God. I said that I imagine God during the crucifixion as not
being able to watch, as having to turn aside. Well, I also imagine the mixed feelings that
He might have had at that moment. Seeing the Pain in His dear Son’s eye yet, knowing
joyfully that in a short time He would be with Him for all eternity.

I sat as I wrote this exhortation and watched out my dining room window as my
son chased a butterfly. He almost caught it a few times, but it remained always just out of
his reach, always flitting just beyond his grasp. He stopped and looked at me for a
moment and I could see the pure joy in his face. I could see that his enjoyment was not in
actually catching the butterfly it was in the way that he pursued it. With all his heart, with
all his mind, and with all his energy. This is the way that we should pursue the Truth.
This is the way in which we should approach God. Not expecting to catch him, but
enjoying every minute of the chase. And how many of us actually do this. How many of
us can say that we spent the whole day just chasing a butterfly. A day to a child is as a
lifetime.
For we are told that it is not the things that we accomplish that will see that we are
happy. Galatians 2:16 tells us “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might
be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the
law shall no flesh be justified.”
Children seem to be happy most of the time. A child’s unhappiness is short lived,
perhaps this is something else we can learn from them. We are each responsible for our
own happiness. If we are unhappy perhaps we should take a lesson from Matthew 18 and
from our children. Stop pursuing the things that make us unhappy, the things of this
world and put away the unhappiness. Put away the unhappiness and just smile because
we don’t have tails and because we can and dogs can’t.
And one way I have found to do this is to stop trying so hard to teach my child and
just learn from Him as God had intended by the passage in Matthew 18. Because often
when he asks why and I use that standard response of “I don’t know, That’s just the way
God made them”, He will often say “Well we will just have to ask Jesus when we get to
the Kingdom”. Now that’s faith, That is Truth. And while as adult, we often fear; a
child’s faith is unabated by details, uninhibited by works.