Thursday, March 01, 2007
My God is a good... dog?
In and around MLPK a friend of mine runs what could be called for lack of better words, fun and enjoyable musical education classes for toddlers and children, Musical Bumps. Both LM and LMP go, and have a good time. In fact GLW is even half-tempted to take a franchise herself.
Just occasionally though, we run into slightly incongruous situations. Sarah, who runs it, is a Christian and the organist at one of the local churches. However, MB is run as an educational endeavour, which means that most (all?) Christian children's music is, depending upon you point of view, "re-written" or "Bowdlerised." I can see the arguments on both sides, and ultimately MB is a business and a means of making a living.
Which is why this morning I had to laugh at GLW jigging around the kitchen singing 'My God is a good dog' and every other possible juxtaposition, inadertantly and unconsciously.
But (theology warning) I found the confusion strangely apt. After all how often do all of us like to treat God as "man's best friend?"
We want him to be loyal, steadfast and loving. We want him to warn us of danger, and like Lassie to come to our aid, or cause others to do so.
And, of course, how often do we want to keep him on a lead, to do what we tell him, "feed" him at times convenient to us and get annoyed when he emabarrasses us or shows us up in front of others?
"My God is a good dog, yes, he is"? ¶ 9:28 am
Just occasionally though, we run into slightly incongruous situations. Sarah, who runs it, is a Christian and the organist at one of the local churches. However, MB is run as an educational endeavour, which means that most (all?) Christian children's music is, depending upon you point of view, "re-written" or "Bowdlerised." I can see the arguments on both sides, and ultimately MB is a business and a means of making a living.
Which is why this morning I had to laugh at GLW jigging around the kitchen singing 'My God is a good dog' and every other possible juxtaposition, inadertantly and unconsciously.
But (theology warning) I found the confusion strangely apt. After all how often do all of us like to treat God as "man's best friend?"
We want him to be loyal, steadfast and loving. We want him to warn us of danger, and like Lassie to come to our aid, or cause others to do so.
And, of course, how often do we want to keep him on a lead, to do what we tell him, "feed" him at times convenient to us and get annoyed when he emabarrasses us or shows us up in front of others?
"My God is a good dog, yes, he is"? ¶ 9:28 am
