By the time you read this, Scooter, our beloved basset hound of the last nine years, will be dead. Right now, he is alive, blissfully unaware of his appointment with the vet, but certainly very much aware of the growth on his spine pushing against his prostate and colon.

He doesn’t know his growth is inoperable. He doesn’t know we can’t fix it. All we can do now is let him know he is loved and care for him as best we can. We can give him a good death, and we will.

My grandmother, Dorris, worked child protective services for the state of Maine for 23 years. She’d seen a lot, she was no sentimentalist, but I do remember her saying she always wept more for losing her animal companions than even the human beings closest to her. “They need you more,” was her explanation.

In my work, I share the struggles of many folks who are wondering why they are still alive and, frankly, wishing they were dead. What can I say to them? They are ready to go, and God, in God’s grace, is ready to receive them.

I remind them of Paul struggling with the same thing in 2 Corinthians 5. “It isn’t for us to know the day or the hour,” I say, knowing full well the exact day and hour for Scooter, for which I will be called humane.

Sometimes, the best way to honor our Creator and the gift of life is to give that life back in a deep and abiding trust to the One who gave it to us in the first place. Sometimes, the best way to respect life is to let it go. Scooter will die in my arms, loved until the end and knowing it, as the Psalmist did when he wrote:

O Lord, how manifold are your works!

In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

These all look to you to give them their food in due season; when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.

When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.

When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.

THE REV. MARK D. WILSON is pastor and teacher at Phippsburg Congregational UCC.

CLERGY COLUMN

¦ Local clergy wishing to write should contact Lois Hart at lhart@gwi.net. Lay ministers as well as ordained clergy may contribute.

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.