My wife, Maxine, and I have an 11-year- old cocker spaniel named Rusty. Before he came to us in 2008, I was contemplating whether or not I should semi-retire. It’d been several years since we had a dog, and we decided not to get another one until the day we finally retired, but we were just too busy! As I was asking God about retirement, I received an email from someone at my work place saying they were trying to find a home for a cocker spaniel. Isn’t it amazing how God works? We made arrangements to go see him, and lo and behold, we knocked and found Rusty waiting just inside the door with love in his eyes. Maxine and I immediately fell in love with him. Rusty was my confirmation from the Lord that it was okay to semi-retire.

Rusty loves everyone. He has never met a stranger. He even likes cats. Rusty doesn’t care who you are—whether you’re short, fat, tall or skinny and no matter what color your skin is. He doesn’t care what neighborhood you're from, what kind of car you drive, or what your job is. Rusty doesn’t care whether you are well to do, or if you are a beggar on the street. Rusty just loves people, especially little children. He follows our grandkids all around the house when they visit. Whether we’re gone all day or just for a short time, when we return, Rusty meets us at the door with love in his eyes. If I forget to feed him on time, Rusty doesn’t get mad. He loves me anyway. You see? Rusty loves everyone unconditionally.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 in the Message Translation Bible says this: “If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day; and if I have faith that says to a mountain, ‘jump’, and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.” I can be a great minister of God’s word. I can speak eloquently. I can even surrender my life for God as a martyr! But if I don’t love, I’m like a rusty gate, swinging to and fro, just making noise. Without love, I’m nothing at all. Rusty gets it! He doesn’t speak much, but one look in his eyes says it all. Shouldn’t we be more like Rusty?