I was reading through some poetry about dogs' passings tonight, and ran across this Rudyard Kipling poem. I am not always a fan of his militant Christianity, but the line "I smile through my tears on this first day
alone" did me in (it's my first day). Here is the poem:
A Dog
for Jesus
(Where
dogs go when they die)
I wish
someone had given Jesus a dog.
As loyal
and loving as mine.
To sleep
by His manger and gaze in His eyes
And
adore Him for being divine.
As our
Lord grew to manhood His faithful dog,
Would
have followed Him all through the day.
While He
preached to the crowds and made the sick well
And
knelt in the garden to pray.
It is
sad to remember that Christ went away.
To face
death alone and apart.
With no
tender dog following close behind,
To
comfort its Master's Heart.
And when
Jesus rose on that Easter morn,
How
happy He would have been,
As His
dog kissed His hand and barked it's delight,
For The
One who died for all men.
Well,
the Lord has a dog now, I just sent Him mine,
The old
pal so dear to me.
And I
smile through my tears on this first day alone,
Knowing
they're in eternity.
Day
after day, the whole day through,
Wherever
my road inclined,
Four
feet said, "Wait, I'm coming with you!"
And
trotted along behind.
Rudyard
Kipling
