We have all heard the saying of “judging a book by its cover”, and how sometimes a person with strong looking character doesn’t live up to that character as seemingly thought because of how others perceive those looks, which in itself is a stupid way to judge anything. Yet we still do it.

But does the same judging premise work for other things like animals. Well, if we are talking about wild animals, even the smaller ones need to be given plenty of room as they understand the thought process behind survival of the fittest so regardless of their character looking cute and cuddly…they are still a wild animal and you are a lunchbox.

But domesticated animals are different, depending on their caretaker of course,  and I won’t get on that soapbox for now. For now we are referring to visual character and do they really have it. I think we humans are the one’s who place that character on anything we see and judge it accordingly. We are a creation that tends to judge and give opinions on people and animals. When you go to the shelters, which I tend to stay away from as I will bring them all home, people will judge the validity of a family pet on how it looks, especially a puppy, without any consideration of it one day being a full grown dog. Then they don’t like how the animal behaves due to their own poor training practices or the fact that “That’s a cool breed, lets get one of those” doesn’t really work for you now that it weighs 85 lbs.

The reason I bring this up is because of “the church rescue”. Yesterday, a neighbor of the church brought over a small dog he thought originally had been hit right in front of the church and just left to die. All of us at the church are animal people so once we checked him out and realized he was not hurt, probably just an older fellow we got in touch with all rescue type people to see if anyone had lost their pet and such. It just so happened that the monthly Vista luncheon was going on at the same time. Vista is a program we have for people 50+ that has a monthly program combined with lunch. A good time for combining information of interest and fellowship. One of the ladies well into her 80s, came to the office to ask a question and fell in love with this dog. She had lost her long time family pet about a year prior, and due to her age, really did not want to start out with a puppy. Now this dog probably weight about 6 pounds soaking wet, was dirty with long matted, flea bitten and could not walk properly due to an issue with his hip, not at all a good visual judge of character. You could tell he had been someones pet at one time as he understood commands and kindness. So now this bedraggled creature went to a new home. She took him today to the vet and had him checked out, got him bathed, haircut and yes…a bow in his hair, its what some little ole ladies do. Then she brought him by the church for us to see the transformation. He has a caring new home and she has someone to take care of and talk to, a win-win in my book. We need to remember that older folks still need to be needed and loved. This was a good lesson for some of the younger folks.

When we look more at the heart than at the visual, we begin to see the real character. That is what Jesus does. We are all of utmost value to him regardless of how we look. He knows our hearts and he wants everyone in his hands where he can take care of us.

But there is a little more to this post on “character in a face”. There are some dogs that just ooze character, again, to some people.  I am working on a birthday present for my daughter and have compiled some precious photos that I believe have character as his heart is very close to the preciousness of these pictures. So enjoy them or if not a dog lover feel free to move on to the next post.

Life of Maximus, the basset hound. I have posted several of his adult pictures in the past as he makes me laugh.

Baby pictures are always too cute, regardless of type of creature. Just go to the zoo and see all the babies in the spring.

Max’s personality coming through. He is a very sad creature as most bassets are.

Maximus, sitting  as on a throne of power after the royal he was so named.

But in reality, he just loves his mommy and is so sad when she isn’t home so we stare at the door until she arrives.

I hope I made you smile today and encouraged you for a few minutes to forget possible life situations you may be going through. Remember God is never far from us and all we have to do is lift an hand to him for his help.