We Got a Puppy!/Attachment
Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked any thing.
A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
George Herbert
Meet Biscuit! He's a mix of poodle and bichon called a "poochon" and will only be 9 lbs when he's full grown. We're smitten and exhausted!
I’m a first-time puppy mama, so the learning curve has been swift and steep. (How did people live without YouTube tutorials?) I’ve learned how to replace my ankles with chew toys, turn my back, and signal that I no longer want to “play”. I’ve learned how to train our pup to sleep when we do. And I’ve been assured that “zoomies” after bath time are perfectly normal for puppies, like our Biscuit.
One suggestion for feeding time caught my attention. Experts recommend rubbing Biscuit’s dry dog food in my hands before placing it in his bowl. They say my scent tells him I am the leader of our little pack. I have gone ahead to “kill” and provide Biscuit his meal. My smell communicates that I will care for him. It helps my furry fella attach to me.
I immediately thought of something in Jim Wilder’s book with Dallas Willard, Renovated. Wilder is a “neurotheologian,” someone who studies how our brains interact with spiritual practices and experiences. Wilder suggests that Christians can train their brains to relate to God based on joyful, mutual attachment--which can lead to greater wholeness and integrity. He says we attach to whoever feeds us. Love, not effort nor a set of truths, is what motivates us to be like Jesus.
Wilder says, “The strongest force in the human brain is attachment. Attachment love will carry parents into burning buildings. It may have been the strength of Jesus’ attachment love for His Father, not His will, that was invincible.”
“The brain has attachment love—not our will—as its central figure,” says Wilder. “Human history went wrong when Adam and Eve let the serpent, rather than God, feed them. The new attachment did not do us any good. Attaching to Jesus means He becomes the One who feeds us and gives us drink.”
Our character is shaped more by whom we love than what we believe. I'm still "chewing" on what that means (sorry!). But here are a few prompts that might help you to experience His loving presence and faithfulness:
Where might you smell His scent on a recent provision?
What helps remind you that His love secured Him to the Cross?
How can you experience Him reaching out to you with joyful delight right this second?
JUDY