What Velvet Taught Me About Worship

When Tiffany and I got married in 2008, we decided that we were going to take the advice of Dr. Rodney Comer (our premarital counselor). He advised us to wait about three or four years before we started trying to have children. 

One day in 2009, Tiffany sent me a picture of a Black Lab/Collie Mixed Puppy that needed a home so she would not be sent to the pound. Tiffany knew that I had wanted a dog since I was a young boy. 

Now that I was out of my parents' house, I had the perfect opportunity to become a dog owner. I thought about it and kept looking at the picture of this puppy and I fell in love. I agreed with Tiffany that we would give this dog a home. So, Tiffany brought this dog named Velvet to our home in Pulaski. 

I had a lot to learn about having a puppy in the house. I had to learn to get used to not sleeping all night. I had to learn how to learn from something that did not know how to talk to me but knew how to inaudibly communicate with me. 

We had many adventures with this dog over the years. There were many days that Tiffany wanted to give Velvet away because of how she would destroy things that belonged to her. 

Velvet was just like having a child in the house. I believe that she prepared us for adding Leah to our family. As I’m writing this, I’m reminded about how Velvet took my plate of Bourbon Chicken plate off the table and nudged the styrofoam open until she got it to my chicken. By the time that I figured out what happened, my plate was on the floor with nothing in it but rice. This was not funny at the time. But it became funny after we thought about all the effort she put into taking the plate off the table to place it on the floor to nudge it open just eat the chicken off the plate.

She would do a lot of annoying and funny things over the years that we had her. But there was one thing about her that I will never forget. She always showed her loyalty to us. When she found out Tiffany was pregnant, she started protecting the front door by sleeping there or laying there watching out for us. It’s like her entire mission was to protect the yard. She would whimper when we left the house. She was satisfied when we were all there in the house together. Remember this for the rest of the rest of this story. 

While in Seminary, I learned the Greek word, “Proskuneo” which means to kiss the hand, kneel, bow or lay prostrate in reverence, homage, or respect. 

For years, I had heard John 4 preached and talked about while in a church setting. I thought worship was about what we do on a Sunday Morning between the hours of 9am - 12pm between the four walls of our man-made temples that we called “church buildings”. 

Doing a deeper study of this Text showed me that worship to the Creator was deeper than just showing up to a building at a certain time on a certain day. It was about showing reverence to the Creator the same way that Velvet showed reverence to Tiffany and me. 

Her very being was to make sure that she did things that pleased us. When we showed her love or fed her, she showed us that she was thankful. Even though she couldn’t speak like a human, she showed her appreciation by licking our hand (kissing) and bowing her head before us to show us her loyalty to us. 

While I was sitting on our front porch one day, I watched Velvet do this and realized that God was using a dog to show me what true worship looked like. This coupled with the Text helped me to understand that worship may be done in the physical realm but there is something that happens in the physical that helps us to connect to the spiritual. There is something that happens externally that internally connects us to the Spirit of God. 

Velvet’s kiss was an external thing that connected how she felt about us to how much we loved her. This is how God took a Black Lab/Collie Mix named Velvet to teach me about worship. 

Velvet passed away in 2017. But the lessons that she taught still linger with us. I thank God for the time we got to spend with this four-legged family member.