Comment: On today’s walk I present to you our new puppy – Molly.

Scripture:

25“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

28“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like oneof these. 30Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

The sun is out. The sun is out. Hopefully the bugs are in, so it is a good time to go for our walk. Ah yes, it is the little black fly season in New Hampshire and that is not a happy time if you are trying to work outside. And when they bite, those tiny flies, they leave you with a huge welt that itches for days.

There are a few mosquitos as well in the evening; a few, that is an understatement for at times they seem as large as dragonflies. A day or so ago, I was telling a person that Julie, Candleberry Chapel’s former office administrator, said that in Maine on their lake, the black flies infested the area until the dragonflies hatched, then the dragonflies took care of those black cloud of bugs.

When I was telling about the black flies to my visitor, I could not remember the name “dragonfly.” Call it a senior moment or whatever – the only term I could think or was a “darning needle.” When I was a kid, a very long time ago, we called dragonflies darning needles. It was said back then that one of those darning needles could sew up your mouth. My visitor had never heard of a “darning needle” term for a dragonfly. Children today – do they have such strange stories told to them as adults told to us when we were children? Anyway, we could use a few thousand dragon flies here right now.

Life has changed dramatically here at the Boyle home in New Hampshire. We have a new addition named Molly. Molly is a Bernese Mountain dog. Last Thursday, we drove down to Connecticut to pick her up and bring her home. She is nine weeks old, and she steals your heart the moment you see her. People have warned me that she will be a very large dog; I know that. Perhaps you do not remember that we have had several Saint Bernards over a thirty-year time so I am a larger dog person. No comments please – a large dog for a large person!

We are working hard to house train Molly, no easy task. We take her out very often but evidently not often enough. And when you take Molly out, she decides that it is so great outside, even when it is raining, that she does not wish to go back into the house. So just picture yesterday when it was pouring and Dale or I took Molly out, and she just decided to lie down and roll in the grass and stay out for along time.

Now I wish to talk more with you about Molly’ s outside adventures, but before that, I want to share how wonderful she was on the ride home to Hopkinton, New Hampshire. It was a four-hour drive. Dale held Molly, and Molly just stayed quietly in Dale’s lap all the way home. Of course, we had to stop several times, and each time Molly was a good puppy, and then on we would go for the next hour or so. At home the first night, she was so very good although she did not like her crate home very well. She did not like the net playpen either, and she could jump out of right after you put her in that confined area. That was not a wise purchase. Do you need a very slightly used puppy playpen?

At night now, we leave her crate open, and she sleeps in our room and has been excellent in her behavior; that is overall excellent because she is still a puppy. Last night, we only had to get up one time to put her outside. Also, I want to tell you that we purchased a halter for her, and I can put a seatbelt through the halter so that she can go for a ride with me in my truck. She rides just wonderfully. She is going to make a wonderful companion once we get her trained, and her teething days are over. All this brings us back to when our children were babies. Back then, I was not in my eighties!

But lets go back outside with Molly. The world is opening up for our puppy, and it is wonderful to see. She finds a stick, and she chews it; she sees a dandelion gone to seed as a ball, and she leaps on it and the seeds flow away. A bright yellow dandelion is something you have to bite and see how it tastes; the pile of leaves at the edge of the rock garden is something to roll in and to push your muzzle down into the cool earth beneath the leaves. When a car drives past our home, she stands taught and stares at that fast moving vehicle. I love to see her stand still and cock her head as she hears a shrill note sung from a nearby bird. She seems to be saying what is that? She will lap up fresh dew or raindrops from the grass, and then she will flop over and roll about until she turns herself upside down and then upright again. But what I think I love the most is when she jumps up all four feet off the ground and bounces off a new place to investigate. It is then she seems to be saying with abounding joy, “ I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive!” I’ve seen young calves and sheep do that – just jump all feet off the ground and bound away to leap and jump again filled with a wondrous beautiful world and life.

When Molly does that “joy of life jig”, I think myself what a beautiful thing being alive can be. What a wonderful world God created for us, His creatures. Jesus so appreciated this world. What words are more beautiful than those in the Sermon of the Mount? “Look at the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor spin, yet look how beautiful they are dressed; look at the birds of the air, they neither toil or reap yet the heavenly Father feeds them.” Jesus brought to his disciples and those who followed him, the beauty of the earth and how it shows the very love of God. I do not look at the world the same way as my little puppy; I’ve been here a long time, but through Molly, I look anew at the gift of life and the wonder of our world. How I rejoice that a little puppy can bring to this pastor the true joy of new life, and the grand comforting thought that all of this, flowers and birds and puppies and fellow human creatures was created by a loving Father.

Prayer:

Dear Father, we offer You our grateful hearts for life and the beauty and the love it can bring to us. We pray that we never let the difficulties of daily living overcome our knowledge that we build here on earth, a relationship with You, an eternal and loving God. Help us to look at our world anew just like a new puppy and see the great love of our Creator that fills us with joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.,

Thank you for walking with me today. I hope our walk has brought to you again the joy of new life – And now “May the Lord watch between me and thee while we are absent one from the other.”