About half the pictures on my iPhone are by my younger daughter. From a series of 20 she took one after another.

(This is not a good poster for this particular movie.)

A Wright family tradition is to see a movie on certain holidays especially New Year’s Day. Frankly the selection is pretty poor right now and my kids had already seen most of what they were interested in (including *barf* “Twilight” *barf*). We went with “Marley and Me” starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston which is based on the memoir Marley and Me by Josh Grogan.

Is this the story of a couple (and later also their children) and a dog? Or the story of a dog named Marley and the family among which he lives?

Josh and Jen are newlyweds who move to Florida in order to follow their careers in writing/journalism. Each lands a job although at a different newspaper. Jen covers high-profile and exciting political issues. Josh is stuck with the “local beat”. In order to help stave off – well postpone – his wife’s desire to start having children Josh buys her a puppy for her birthday. A Lab if I am not mistaken.

(Good friends of ours decided to take in a stray Lab puppy which showed up at the school where the wife teaches. That cute Lab puppy became a baby hippo with yellow fur.)

The puppy grows and quickly turns into an almost uncontrollable nightmare of barking chewing and knocking things over (including sometimes their children when they start to show up).

There are at least three themes that struck me throughout the film.

First. I identify with Josh because Josh struggles with his own sense of passion and interest. He wants to be a famous reporter who covers super-high-profile stories like his best friend (who travels the world and writes long investigative pieces that land the front page of the New York Times). But he gets stuck with the “local beat”. And then a bi-weekly column… that becomes a daily column that is often funny and sometimes a serious reflection on local issues (parks, hospital emergency rooms, neighborhood safety, and so on). He never really fulfills his dreams as a famous journalist.

I used to dream of being a (semi-)famous or at least respected and productive scholar who teaches in a seminary or university setting. Dang I was in school until age 32 getting undergraduate then graduate degrees then a seminary degree. I have published two articles and one book (which was given a review than can only be called devastating). Pastor a tiny little church/ministry for internationals in south Louisiana and am on staff for a middle-sized American congregation. Often – especially on a day like today when I hit 42 – I wonder what the heck I am doing here and with my life and what happened to all my big dreams which frankly at this stage I have pretty much given up on them. Discovered I am even beginning to lose fluency in biblical Hebrew.

Josh did not imagine himself or plan on being a columnist. And yet (whether he believes in God or not) that is where eventually God led him. And where perhaps he belonged with his family and even with Marley.

Perhaps this is exactly where God wants me. Everyone – including a team of experienced missionaries from Cooperative Baptist Fellowship – tells me this that I do a “phenomenal” job in my ministry with internationals. They seem to believe it when seldom I can. (And maybe one day I can still go back and work on those dreams of doing research/writing and teaching.)

Second. And this continues from the first… notice how the “curse” of Marley the dog inspires his best columns. Not just the ones about life with a dog! Because of Marley he has to go to the emergency room which leads to a column about emergency rooms and medical care in his city (to pick just one example out of a lengthy montage about one third through the film). Here we see the providence of God – events which seem trivial unimportant even annoying lead to significant results with important far beyond the individual(s) concerned.

Third. Unconditional love. Josh (voice of Owel Wilson of course) toward the end of the movie lays it out for us. A dog does not care if you are rich/poor, smart/dumb, white/black, man/woman, old/young. If you love a dog he will love you back faithfully and unconditionally. “Give a dog your heart and he will give you his” (something like that).

{ADD QUOTE FROM THE SAMURAI BY SHUSAKU ENDO RE CHRIST LIKE DOG}

Fourth. Death.

You realize that dogs do not live as long as humans right?

I do not wish to say too much but be prepared to have your emotions wrenched by the last several minutes. How do we prepare for death? How do you act when death is happening under your very hand? How do you grieve?

The film forces us to think about how we deal with mortality illness and death.

Do dogs go to heaven?

I am not sure anyone or anything “goes to” heaven. Is heaven a place or a time? Could it be even a “place” but a place that is parallel/intersecting our own such that one does not so much “go to” heaven as one “shifts into” heaven?

If there will be a new heavens and a new earth… if God will make all things new… if there will be hills and rivers and trees in the new heavens/earth…

Why not dogs? Even if dogs do not have “souls” (and does anyone have a “soul”? or are we souls?) does that mean God cannot resurrect them?

We have the best dog in the world and we love him. I know that surely one day we will have to face this.

The film received mediocre reviews at Rotten Tomatoes (which I visit before watching any film) and I do not dispute the rating (although there are problems with a rating system which is basically binary) but frankly we enjoyed it.

I am not sure I believe in animal “rights”. But I do believe human beings have a divinely given responsibility to care for animals. This is a theological conviction rooted in exegesis of Genesis 1-2. God created human beings to represent God within creation and to “manage” (my loose translation of yirduu < Hebrew rada[h] – got this from a Chinese visiting scholar in forestry) the world with God and for God. So “rule over the animals” does not mean “dominate them and do whatever you want with them” because that is not the Hebrew/biblical concept of rule. To “rule” has in mind the ancient ideal of the shepherd-king (rather than king-as-tyrant) who cares for those in his charge.

Human beings – who image God within creation – are supposed to take care of animals.

And so I have little sympathy for Michael Sandlin who for eight years has kept a tiger in a steel-and-concrete cage at his truck stop in order to attract people to his business. Iberville Parish is trying to enforce a rule against displaying wild animals. Sandlin is suing for an exception because – and at least he comes out and admits this:

“A large portion of the business at Tiger Truck Stop comes from customers stopping to view the tiger exhibit,” his lawsuit seeking an injunction stated.

“Mr. Sandlin will suffer irreparable harm if he is required to relocate his tiger,” the suit stated. “If he is forced to relocate the tiger or if the tiger is seized then he will most likely be prevented from bringing it back to the State of Louisiana.”

Read the whole thing at the Baton Rouge Advocate. You do not have to register.

Okay – I sympathize a little bit. It would hurt him financially (along with the people he employs which includes family members). Not that other businesses somehow manage without something like a tiger-on-display-in-a-cage. And it could be worse. The tiger can stand up and move around. He is cared for – more or less.

How would Sandlin like to be stuck in a cage like this for eight years? “But you get plenty of water and food. You are well fed. These animals rights wackos should not move you from the only home you have known for eight years”. It could be worse – but that is a far cry from being good or right or appropriate for a wild animal. Louisiana State University grew a brain and a heart and built the new habitat for Mike the Tiger. (Which is not to endorse the whole tiger-on-display thing.) Animals need more than water and food when they are stuck in a bare boring steel and concrete cage. They need stimulation. Things to do. Otherwise we suggest that prison is no big deal – right?

The animal rights activist should not have allegedly called Sandlin’s sister an “inbred” (which nearly led to fisticuffs outside the courtroom). But other than that…

What kind of people are these? Who would use a tiger like this?

No wonder some people think Louisiana is backwards.