Kepler’s Lopsided Trade

Kepler doesn’t want to miss anything
at the campground!

We named our 8-month-old Jack Russell terrier puppy Kepler for the Biblical creationist, mathematician, and astronomer Johann Kepler (1571-1630) who discovered the three Laws of Planetary Motion.

Kepler sleeps in a crate and also stays there when we have to leave him alone for a period of time. We trained him to enter the crate on command using treats. He’s always happy to obey the “Crate” command, because every time we give him a nice treat when he obediently goes into the crate.

It is funny to see how urgently he charges into the crate when a treat is coming. The crate is open during the day, and he will often voluntarily enter the crate, turn around, and sit hoping for a treat.

Kepler’s Trade – Freedom for Food

I find it interesting and instructive that Kepler will always eagerly trade hours of confinement in his crate for a small tidbit that takes only seconds to consume. He trades freedom for food.

It reminds me of humans who will trade eternity for the passing pleasures of sin.

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36-37)

Mankind commonly makes far worse trades than Kepler’s. After all, there’s no real harm in Kepler’s trade. Mankind’s are sometimes quite deleterious. For example:

• Trading the trust and love of a marriage for a night of adulterous passion
  

  With her many persuasions she entices him. With her flattering lips she seduces him. Suddenly he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool, until an arrow pierces through his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, so he does not know that it will cost him his life. (Proverbs 7:21-23)
  The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense. He who would destroy himself does it. Wounds and disgrace he will find, and his reproach will not be blotted out. (Proverbs 6:32-33)

• Trading freedom for tyrannical government
• Trading God-given inalienable rights for security
• Trading an unborn child’s life for personal convenience

What is the answer to “bad trades”? Sir George Williams (1821-1905), the founder of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), tersely explained the solution quite well:

“My life-long experience as a business man, and as a Christian worker among young men, has taught me that the only power in this world that can effectually keep one from sin, in all the varied and often attractive forms is that which comes from an intimate knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as a present Saviour. And I can also heartily testify that the safe Guide-Book by which one may be led to Christ is the Bible, the Word of God, which is inspired by the Holy Ghost.”
(From Our Nation’s Godly Heritage)

Kepler’s namesake, Johann Kepler, believed that God created the universe according to a logical plan that man could ascertain through the application of his God-given reasoning powers. Professor Kepler described his own scientific research and study of the universe as “thinking God’s thoughts after Him.” His study of the heavens led him to proclaim,

“Great is God our Lord, great is His power and there is no end to His wisdom. Praise Him you heavens, glorify Him, sun and moon and you planets. For out of Him and through Him, and in Him are all things….. We know, oh, so little. To Him be the praise, the honor and the glory from eternity to eternity.”

As a friend commented, the world-famous scientist Johann Kepler would be happy to know that he continues to glorify God through a little dog — in campground conversations — under the heavens.

Questions to Ponder

1. What choice is facing you that might be an “uneven” trade?
2. What are some of the unwise trades Biblical characters made?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

Soli Deo Gloria.

This is the third article in a series of blog posts on our Jack Russell terrier Kepler.
Read the prequels:
1. Why I Named Our Puppy “Kepler”
2. Kepler’s Kind

Read the sequel on our puppy Kepler:
4. Kepler’s Amazing Nose

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:4)
Wednesday November 12, 2014 A.D.

But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.
Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare to you.
Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind? (Job 12:7-10)