Ginger the dog...agent of God?

by Ron Wheeler

One "agent of God" surrounded by three angels.
Ginger and Ron's kids
      The year 2000 was one of the slowest years in recent memory for me in my cartooning business/ministry. It seemed like nothing I did resulted in new work. My employment that year was filled with magazines folding, art directors changing positions, projects delayed, etc. So I did what any normal God fearing Christian would do during a time like this ... I fasted and I prayed.

   It was during this time that Ginger, our one year old golden retriever, did something very unusual. Normally she ignores my Scripture memory verse pack (a small leather-like card holder used for carrying several Bible verses) when I leave it on the steps to my studio as I come into the house.

   One day she didn’t. I found her gnawing on the verse pack and my cards were scattered all over the stairs. Thankfully most of the cards were in pretty good shape except for one. All that was left was a slimy top piece of the card with the Bible reference on it. That card happened to be Jeremiah 15:16, which (in the KJV) starts out ... “Thy words were found and I did eat them.”

   I thought, “Wow! Do you suppose the Lord has a message for me here?” I soon dismissed the notion, thinking it was just the fertile imagination of a cartoonist down on his luck grappling for anything to serve as a sign from God. Two days later Ginger did it again. This time she went into my studio and looked for my new verse pack (I no longer left them out in the open) to satisfy her chewing urges. After scolding her I began to pick up my cards. I chuckled to myself, wondering if there might be another “message from God” in her endeavor.

   To my utter shock and amazement there was one card missing. It was from a series of verses on the Sermon on the Mount I had memorized awhile back. Do you want to know what it says? The missing one was Matthew 7:6 which (in the NIV) begins, “Do not give dogs what is sacred.”

   Isn’t that astounding? I have to admit that it sounds crazy to think that God would use a dog to send someone a message, unless the message God wanted to send was this:

   “Ron, I know you are going through a difficult time now. However, keep in mind that this cartoon ministry of yours is My ministry. As you can see, I am the author of humor. I will open the doors and close the doors. I am a Sovereign God. I am so Sovereign that I can make even that dumb animal eat two cards of my choosing from your stock of 20 years of Scripture memory verses. So stop sweating this stuff and just trust in Me.”

   I will never look at that dog in the same way again. I know that as I watch what Ginger licks, smells, eats, and steps in, not everything that dog does looks divinely inspired. Yet I feel like in some ways I’ve got a Balaam’s donkey here.

   Fortunately my work has picked up considerably now. In the future, when it comes time to discern the Lord’s will, instead of throwing out a fleece as they did in the Old Testament, maybe I’ll just hand Ginger one of my verse packs to see what the Lord has to say to me.