Unexpected lessons...

“And Moses was content to dwell with the man:

and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.”

- Exodus 2:21, Bible

He was big and smart. 

When he knocked her to the ground, he just walked away 10 feet or so and waited.   She got up a little unsteady on her feet; he walked over and knocked her down again. 

The setting…

Nearly 30 years of my life centered around a small acre of land on highway 24 West in the rural community of Moberly, Missouri.  I came to a small Bible teaching community in 1975, in the second year of my doctoral program at the University of Missouri.  The school program would take two or three years, and I had found a place where I could do a little scripture studying at the same time.  After the war and a few years of school, I was restless and it seemed like a good fit.  While I didn’t know it at the time, those two or three years turned into three decades!

In the early years, while in school, I lived in a trailer on the church property with a couple of other fellows.  I am not sure I have either the time, or the hard drive space to recount the many adventures and stories that occured in those thirty years, but on this Christmas day I am reminded of Moses and Zipporah...not Moses and Zipporah of the Old Testament scriptures, but Moses and Zipporah the dogs!

Oh the weather out side is frightful...

It was winter in Missouri…a winter that had brought a lot of snow.  Not that powdery kind that comes from freezing temperatures high in the atmosphere…the kind that dusts the ski slopes of the Colorado Rockies.  Rather the wet heavy kind that happens when temperatures in the clouds are at or just above freezing. 

This kind of snow creates a ‘…deafening silence…’ found in soundproof rooms – you know the kind.  It falls fast and in big flakes…the kind that comes on the heels of a few mild winter days…the that kind snarls traffic in cities and towns…the kind that packs down and makes the county and state roads deadly…the kind that overcomes the best battle plans of the salt and gravel trucks…the kind that replaces the snow as fast as a plow can clear it, AND the kind that lends itself to wonderful snowmen, angels in the snow, and enthusiastic snowball fights.  Yes sir, the kind that brings out the child in all but the grumpiest of folk who always see the glass half empty!

My friend Moses…

It was winter and a time of year that Moses seemed to love.  While he officially belonged to David, he was for all practical purposes the ‘church dog.’  He was a large German shepherd weighing in somewhere north of 85 pounds (38k).  He looked big under normal circumstances, but in moments of alarm, when his body hair stood on end – he looked enormous and it was breath taking!

The church property sat right on the highway.  It was the kind of road farmers and others used to get to town and back…the kind of road that claimed the lives of countless cats and dogs finding themselves unwisely crossing in search of a mouse or other small animal living in the surrounding woods.  For some reason Moses had learned to look both ways…he understood death lurked on that ribbon of asphalt running beside the trailer where he lived, and he had a healthy respect for it.

In those early years Moses was a fixture.  While his real home was a pen beside the trailer, he was allowed inside, and there were many nights when he stayed with me in that trailer.

Stray animals were not unusual…

Over the years a lot of stray dogs and cats made their way on to the church property – many stayed until the highway or greener pastures either ended their lives or caused them to move on.  Moses pretty much put up with them.  Putting up meant…if they didn’t bother him, he wouldn’t bother them.  He had seen a lot in his years and seemed to understand détente was the best policy.

During the fall of this year, Zipporah arrived at church.  In the scriptures Zipporah was a Midianitish woman that Moses married.  In Moberly, Missouri she was simply a dog!

By the time she arrived, Moses was a little old to consider her, well in the politest of terms, mating material.  She was skittish and very timid.  In spite of this, Moses tried to engage her.  Yet, almost every time he came near, she would assume a submissive posture and cower.

Old dogs teaching new tricks…

The trailer in which I lived was on the Eastern edge of, and parallel to, the parking lot.  This morning because of the snow, there were no cars other than those parked the night before.  I had wakened and was in the process of trying to determine whether I would head over to the church for coffee.  I glanced out the window to see how much snow had fallen and saw Moses and Zipporah standing in the center of the car park.

Moses walked over to her, and as she assumed the position, he knocked her down.  He then walked away and stood still.  When she got up a little unsteadily to her feet; he walked over and knocked her down again.  This happened three of four times.

For some reason, Zipporah seemed to want to make peace.  With head down, she cautiously made her way to Moses and sniffed at him.  As her nose touched his side, he collapsed to the ground.  This startled her and she jumped back.  Moses got to his feet and trotted away another 10 feet or so and stood still…Zipporah made her way uneasily toward him again.  As before, when she sniffed at him and as her nose touched his coat, he fell to the ground.

This cycle repeated itself several times until Zipporah seemed to ‘get it.’  She realized this was a game, and within the 15 minutes or so as I watched this amazing event, she was running at Moses, trying to knock him down!  The next few minutes, the dogs played in the snow – the youngster and the old man – as though they were both pups.  Moses quit first…she flat wore him out!

I don’t know how animals think, or how they process information, but it is my sense Moses wished he had never taught that dog to play.  For in the few remaining months/years of his life Zipporah was unrelenting in her attention for him.  She would tug at him trying to get him to play with her.  From her perspective, I suppose it was simply unbridled affection…

Moses? Had he known Greek mythology, he might have felt he opened Pandora’s box!  He had produced a creature that gave him no peace.  From time to time he would have an expression in his eyes that said, “What have I created!”  And yet, I am certain, given the opportunity, he would have done it all again.  For me, watching that old dog teaching a life lesson to Zipporah was one of the more unexpected pleasures of my life.

The Christmas season, in spite of all the stresses that come along with it, is a time to be grateful for the health that we have and the life we have been given…a time to be gentle with one another and remember those we love…a time to appreciate the circumstances in our lives that have touched us in meaningful ways…big and small. 

I am grateful for my family, and the people from all over this world God has brought into and enriched my life…there is little doubt, however, in the tapestry of my experiences and corner of my heart, where the brush strokes are subtle and barely noticeable to the casual observer…Moses gently resides.

- ted