‘What’s the first thing that comes into your head when I say the word loyal?’ I asked Adi.
‘Dog.’
Strangely enough, it was the first word that came into my head too.
The most loyal dog I can think of is Greyfriars Bobby in Edinburgh. If I remember the story correctly, Bobby was so loyal to his master that even after the man had died Bobby remained by the grave and had to be fed by the kind people of the city.
I googled the meaning of loyal: giving or showing firm and constant support or allegiance.
Synonyms (other words meaning the same thing) for loyal are faithful, true-hearted, devotion.
Those words describe the loyalty of a dog, who is often called a man’s best friend. Certainly my brother’s dog Ben had eyes for only one master, my brother. Even after my brother married and passed Ben onto me, whenever he visited Ben would leap around him barking and yelping, tail wagging till it nearly came off. We were left in no doubt where Ben’s true heart lay.
Change the letters of the word dog and you get God.
Loyal, faithful, true-hearted, devoted: all words that describe God’s character and the way He feels about us.
He is devoted to us long before we’re aware of Him. I read a beautiful story online recently of how a girl suffering with anorexia bulimia was aware of Jesus’ presence beside her as she was sticking her fingers down her throat over the toilet. This was before she knew Jesus the Person who loved her.
I had the amazing privilege of being able to tell a group of women in the sex industry how Jesus is crackers about them and how He would have chosen to hang out with them when He was a man on earth (not to use them or get anything from them but simply to be with them because He saw precious people made in His image).
The more I realise how intensely faithful God is to me, the more I fall in love with Him. He’s the Best. Whoop!