2 Feet, 4 Paws & 1 God

There is a phrase much used in the Church Of England lately, a phrase called "mutual flourishing".  I've spent my fifteen year career as a guide dog owner and my understanding of that phrase is not something I recognise when I hear it bandied around the good old C of E.

All through your training with your dog they constantly bang on about the "bond" between dog and owner, almost to the point of it being obsessive. I have to admit that all those years ago when I was first training with Abbot I was starting to get cross with Lynne my trainer because like a broken record she kept repeating over and over that it was all about the bond. 

I was so wrong the bond I had with Abbot and now have with Jarvis has taught me about prayer, it is a relationship of "mutual flourishing". Let me try and explain.

I always tell people that Jarvis is a sentient being who works for me out of love,  love that is mutual, deep and heartfelt. 

All his life Jarvis has been lavished with love and care, he has never been mistreated. It is that love and care that he responds to. Every time I put on his harness and we leave the house, it is that love he is responding to. 

Jarvis cares for me and I care for him. I am Jarvis's sole carer. I am responsible for feeding him, I groom him each day, we play together every day, I administer any medicine he might need, I keep watch over his health and take him to the vet whenever needed. Now dare I say my fellow Anglicans, one of the most important parts of that bond, that mutual flourishing is that I am the one that quite literally clears up his shit.

In return Jarvis has kept me safe for seven years now without a murmur of complaint, he lives to care for me and does it brilliantly.

For me this echoes loud about the kind of relationship God wants with us and just as with Jarvis there is work to do in forming that bond.