Arjay Wants to Plant a Puppy

by Irene Zundel

My old friend Betty is an extraordinary woman, with a deep love for nature, and a zeal for life. A single parent of four bright children, Betty once earned her daily bread by teaching high-school biology. She had a real gift for bringing living things to life in an interesting and engaging way.

At home, Betty instilled in her children a love for everything that grew or crawled, and the value of self-sufficiency. She took full advantage of living on a ten-acre spread, with the beautiful Pennsylvania woods as her back yard.

Over the years she taught her family how to identify every tree, wild fruit, mushroom, herb and plant, and tell which ones were edible, and which ones had medicinal value. She also put in a garden each year, and taught her young brood how to grow their own fruits and vegetables. Sometimes she would raise pigs and chickens as a source of meat and eggs.

Many times, Betty would send her kids into the woods to forage for wild onions, mushrooms and greens to supplement the family dinner, or for some leaves to make a healing tea.

On several occasions I was blessed to eat their "wild dinners."

During one meal, I recall telling Betty how I admired the way she raised her children. "It must be gratifying to know how much understanding of life and nature you gave your children over the years," I remarked.

Betty laughed in her infectious, jovial manner and replied:

"It wasn’t always like that! Sometimes they didn’t quite get the message I was trying to teach them.

I remember the spring when my oldest son, Arjay, was around three years old. I had him with me every day in the garden, learning how to plant and nurture seedlings.

A few months later, his very first puppy suddenly died. I decided to bury him in a picturesque spot near the family garden.

I took that sweet little boy, with his tear-stained face outside with me and started to dig in the dirt. As I worked, I tried to think of the best way to explain to my son about the cycle of birth, life and death, and what it meant to bury the puppy.

As the shallow grave was finished, I went to get his tiny friend, lovingly wrapped in a baby blanket. As I placed him in the dirt, Arjay suddenly smiled and said:

"Oh, I see, Mommy! We are going to plant the dead puppy, and grow us a brand new one!"

We all had a nice laugh at little Arjay’s naive comment, but later I saw that it was full of truth and wisdom.

As Christians we believe in the resurrection of the dead unto life, in one day receiving a glorified body, to replace our imperfect flesh and blood one.

Wasn’t that, in essence, what Arjay was expecting when he wanted to plant his little puppy in the soft earth of the woods?

The hopeful comment of a sad little child made me realize that death is nothing for us to fear. We needn’t be inconsolable when our loved ones in Christ pass away. We have an eternal hope, so beautifully expressed in the writings of Apostle Paul:

Our dead and decaying bodies will be changed into bodies that won't die or decay. The bodies we now have are weak and can die. But they will be changed into bodies that are eternal.
Then the Scriptures will come true,
"Death has lost the battle!
Where is its victory?
Where is its sting?"

I Corinthians 15: 53-55, Contemporary English translation