Do Dogs go to Heaven?

“Well do they?”

“I don’t know honey, we’ll just have to wait and see.”

My wife got us a dog several years ago… over my strenuous objection I might add.  Over the years, he and I have spent a lot of time together; whose knee did you think he’s curled up on…?   (OK, in the cold months he’s at least warm!)

He doesn’t scare anybody away from the house.

He doesn’t catch mice or anything useful like that.

He does chase rabbits and squirrels, but even when he catches them by surprise and could catch one, he stops and waits for them to run … it’s the game for him, not the catch.

In truth, he really doesn’t do anything that a dog is supposed to do to ‘pay his way’ so to speak.  But you know what he does?

He has anxiety issues.

He has separation anxiety.

He freaks on the fourth of July.

and…

He loves everybody unconditionally.

I can’t find any Biblical text that would make me think that dogs really go to Heaven, but I can find hundreds that say that if more people had that last attribute, then they would go to Heaven!

NASA Releases New Image of Earth

I thought I’d share a new image of God’s wonderous creation with you.  It’s a new high-resolution image recently released by NASA, their article is re-posted below:

NPP’s ‘Blue Marble’

January 25, 2012

A ‘Blue Marble’ image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA’s most recently launched Earth-observing satellite – Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on January 4, 2012.

Suomi NPP is carrying five instruments on board. The biggest and most important instrument is The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite or VIIRS. NPP orbits the earth at 512 miles above the surface. The image is composited from 4 orbits. A map projection algorithm is used to put the VIIRS data in the image. The map projection transformation provides the global look of the image.

+ web view | + hi-res image

Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

via : Suomi NPP :.

Thank you, NASA!

A Lesson from Penn State

The recent madness at Penn State University continues with more and more revelations and speculation.  Over the last 18 hours I’ve heard commentators call for a Congressional Investigation, the FBI and more strict regulations from whatever governmental source to ensure that this “can never happen again”.

At first this sort of talk seems reasonable, obviously no right thinking person wants this kind of outrage to ever happen again.  Who doesn’t want to see the wrong-doers punished?

I rather doubt that Congress should insert itself into this mess, after all they have plenty of messes on their plate already and I don’t see them cleaning any of them up very well… Have I missed something?

The great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has its own legislature full of eager politicians needing face time on TV; why can’t they investigate?

Of course the Federal Department of Education is launching an investigation… Whew! Don’t you feel better now?  After all, everybody has confidence that they will clean up the mess.

It seems a little odd to me that the knee-jerk reaction of the media is always for a governmental solution to every problem as if just having the government involved in something will make everything all right.

NEWS FLASH: Penn State University IS THE GOVERNMENT!!!

Government is an institution created by humans and run by men and women who are fallible.  They make mistakes, they fail in their objectives and they are prone to inertia.  Every person involved (other than the victims) in this case is either a former or current employee of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  There is no employee of any level of government anywhere who is divine; only imperfect humans.

This is not intended to say that those who may be guilty in this matter have an excuse for wrong-doing, nor is it intended to say that no governmental agencies should oversee this matter to ensure that every step is taken to purge the rogue elements from Penn State.  But can’t we at least, just for once, drop the attitude that our government is so vastly superior to the rest of us? The last time I checked, government was there to serve the People, not to be venerated.

Penn State Perspective

Like everyone else, I’ve been listening all week to story after story about the terrible Penn State sex scandal.  It is clearly one of the most disturbing quagmires that have come to light in many years. 

The alleged child molestation of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky is beyond contempt.  The apparent cover up by University officials is beyond belief.  The behavior of the students in the wake of Coach Paterno‘s dismissal is revolting. I could go on, but unless you’ve been living in a cave, you already know all of this…

Joe Paterno

The aspect of this that I would like to concentrate upon in this post is simply this:

We place our trust in institutions, in men and women of high reputation and in the system of laws and justice that we have created… and they fail to protect the least of those among us; including our little children.

Let’s consider some of the se things that are in play in this sordid story:

Penn State University is one of the finest institutions of higher learning in America.  Their reputation has been unquestioned and above reproach.  In fact, several years ago, I sent my own son to a rugby camp there; it was a wonderful experience for him.  Now look at what has happened… over a 17 year period, no less. 

Main entrance of Old Main, at Penn State

As for the individuals involved, it is truly sad that Coach Paterno, who has been a role model for over 60 years, whose accomplishments and integrity have been held up for all to respect, has found himself in such a terrible position.  Yet, how can an open-minded person look at the news of this past week and not wonder how anyone could have been so dense that he allowed Mr. Sandusky to still be using the facilities just last week… in spite of all that he had to have known.  Let’s be fair here… Coach Paterno may not have grasped early on the seriousness of what was going on.  He may never have intended to harm anyone… but he was called before the Grand Jury, how could he not have a very good idea of what they were investigating… and Sandusky is still on his premises!

It is all so very sad…

We would be wise to recall that things like this have happened before, in fact they are as old as the Scriptures.  “And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.” (Isaiah 5:7b)

There are literally hundreds of references like this in the Bible… and the newspapers have been full of this sort of scandal for decades… The sad reality is that the institutions of men will fail.

There is only One who will not fail, and He is the One in whom we must put our faith and trust.

In light of all that we have heard and read this past week, maybe it’s about time that we put our faith where it belongs, in our Lord Jesus Christ. In His love, let us seek forgiveness.  In His steadfastness, let us place our reliance.  In His faithfulness, let us place our faith.

Related articles

• Penn State Scandal: Riot for Joe Paterno a Permanent Black Eye for University (bleacherreport.com)
• As Penn State’s players struggle with scandal’s fallout, I feel for them (aol.sportingnews.com)