Adam and Puppies

Sanna, my friend’s ​Wirehaired Vizsla puppy

Good friends of mine recently got an 8-week-old ​Wirehaired Vizsla puppy that they named Sanna (rhymes with Donna). It’s short for Susanna/Hosanna meaning “Praise God.”

Vizsla means pointer in Hungarian. The ​Wirehaired Vizsla breed was developed in Hungary in the 1930s & 1940s by crossing Hungarian shorthaired vizslas with German wirehaired pointers.

My friends have been without a dog for over 20 years, so this was a big change. Here are some excerpts from my friend’s emails about his experiences with their new puppy:

“But what a willful little thing. I asked my wife last night how a 9-1/2 pound, one of a litter of 12, with a well-adjusted mom and two aunties, and two dominant calm assertive adults, think that she is so important and has decided that it is now time for her to be in charge. She spent most of Saturday trying to convince us that her way was the preferred option.”

“She has an incredible notion that her worldview needs to be given more consideration by me than I am prepared to give. We are enjoying her immensely, but she sure is going to find life difficult until she conforms her ways to align with our ways. I have discovered that when she gets stubborn, demanding, and aggressive, putting her into her kennel for a 3-minute unimaginably pathetic refrain about how unfair her life is, followed by an hour long nap in her kennel, brings about a seemingly miraculous change in her personality.”

“She is not yet very smart. I am hoping that is because she is still a very young puppy, but sometimes I wonder if she is one of those who will struggle just to get through grades K-9. And with her stubborn and willful personality, I am hoping that she doesn’t, one day, end up in a school for wayward girls.”

“In spite of her willful spirit, we love this little puppy (who has taken over every hour of every day of my life).”

“She still can be too willful, but she is gradually figuring out that we don’t really care too much about her opinion of how the world should be run. … She is too big to fit under the couch now, and that has solved many problems. That was her hiding place when she wanted to be disobedient and willful, often running under there after her most recent theft or choice to disobey and then sassing back at us in an attempt to persuade us to see things her way. … She is getting lots of love, has our eyes on her all the time she is not in her kennel, is outdoors with me for several hours every day, and gets introduced to new sights, sounds, and discoveries regularly. We often lament her willful spirit and the difficulties it creates, but we see progress, and we know that it is just a matter of time before she grows out of her “puppy being” and discovers that she is a talented and well adjusted dog.”

Kepler caught a taunting chipmunk. It’s illustrative
of the broken creation resulting from Adam’s sin.

Our one-and-a-half-year-old Jack Russell puppy Kepler also exhibits self-will. He insists on stealing used tissues to eat — in defiance of our long prohibition of this activity. Sometimes he insistently barks, defying the “Quiet” command.

Kepler knows the commands Sit, Heel, Wait, Stay, Lie Down, Spot, Couch, Come, Crate, Good, Window, No, Down, Off, Back, Leave It, Drop It, In My Hand, Fetch, Settle, Quiet, No Bark, No Jump, Say Hi, High Five, Yank, Bone, Lick, Bow, Amen, In, Out, Okay, That’s All, and many others. He will usually obey. But sometimes he is willful and resists obedience.

Kepler knows when he is doing wrong. When I approach him to correct his behavior, he runs and tries to hide. This is just like his first ancestor’s master Adam who hid when God sought Adam after he ate the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:8).

Kepler and Sanna playing in my friend’s back yard

Nevertheless, we know intellectually, theologically, and experientially that Kepler is the dog that Yahweh uniquely and specially prepared for us. Likewise I am confident that Sanna is the dog He prepared especially for my friends.

Sanna and a neighbor boy

My friend’s new puppy is like having a new baby in the house. We raised 7 children, and all of them demonstrated, to one degree or another, self-will like his new puppy.

Why can’t these puppies calmly submit to their masters?
Why did our children, even as toddlers and youngsters, resist parental leadership?

Mankind is supposed to be in dominion over the animal kingdom:
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)

And parents are supposed to lead children:
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. (Ephesians 6:1)

Sanna on a car trip

Yet both pets and children exhibit self-will. Why?

The answer is due to Adam. He sinned and thereby infected all his offspring with a sin nature; Adam caused all of creation to fall under God’s curse.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. (Romans 8:20-22)

Animals resist mankind’s God-ordained dominion over them because of God’s curse on all of creation. Children disobey parents because they are descendants of Adam and therefore sinners. We live in a world broken by Adam’s sin.

The Good News is that Yahweh is going to fix this broken world. Two thousand years ago God became man in the person of Jesus Christ (the second Adam). He lived a sinless life and then died on a cross in Jerusalem. The death of Jesus of Nazareth on the cross provides the ultimate solution for man’s sin and begins the restoration of all of creation. He took our death penalty upon Himself so that men could be forgiven and restored to relationship with their Creator. The risen Lord Jesus Christ offers eternal life to all who will believe in Him:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

Questions to Ponder

1. What experiences have you had with pets that reflect a broken creation?
2. What memories do you have of toddlers showing their descent from Adam?

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

Soli Deo Gloria.

This is the sixth of a series of weekly blog articles on Adam.
Read the prequels:
1. Was Adam in the Garden of Eden?
2. Did Moses Believe in Adam?
3. Did Jesus Believe in Adam?
4. Did Paul Believe in Adam?
5. Does Belief in Adam Matter?

Read the sequels on Adam:
7. Why Did Adam Sin?
8. What Should Adam Have Done?
9. What Did Adam Cause?
10. What Was Adam’s Forbidden Fruit?
11. How Long Was Adam in Eden?
12. Was Adam’s Garden of Eden Real?
13. Christmas & Adam (with videos)
14. Where Was Adam’s Garden of Eden?
15. Did Adam Wear Clothes in Eden?
16. Was Adam Backward or Brilliant? (with video)
17. Who Was Mrs. Adam?
18. Adam’s Dream Girl
19. Adam’s Prolific Princess
20. Adam’s Problematic Princess
21. How Many Children Did Adam Have?
22. Whom Did Adam’s Sons Marry?
23. Did Adam Ride a Unicorn?
24. How Long Did Adam Live?
25. Did Adam Swat Mosquitoes in Eden?
26. Did Adam’s Garden Have a Talking Snake?
27. Why Should Adam’s Sin Affect Me?
28. Did Roses Have Thorns in Adam’s Garden?
29. Adam the Image-Bearer & Harambe the Gorilla
30. Did Adam Ever Return to Eden?
31. What Was Adam’s Tree of Life?
32. Will Adam Be in Heaven?
33. Did Adam See the Big Dipper?
34. Did Adam Know Earth Is Round?
35. Did Jesus Say When Adam Was Created?
36. Did Adam See Dinosaurs?
37. Did Adam Like Steak?
38. Could Adam Read & Write?
39. Did God Use Evolution to Make Adam?
40. Adam & the Olympics
41. Adam and the Gospel
42. Adam and the Genesis Road

This is the eighth article in a series of blog posts on a precocious Jack Russell terrier named Kepler.
Read the prequels on Kepler:
1. Why I Named Our Puppy “Kepler”
2. Kepler’s Kind
3. Kepler’s Lopsided Trade
4. Kepler’s Amazing Nose
5. Kepler’s Business Card
6. Kepler & the Psycho Squirrel (with video)
7. Taunting Kepler

Read the sequel on Kepler:
9. Who Taught Kepler?

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday October 28, 2015 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)