The origin of the phrase used in the title, began as a reference to the hard life of the working dog: sleeping in a damp barn, chasing rats and other intruders, living on scraps, etc. Today, however, it has in some circles acquired the completely opposite connotation.  The phrase has been trace to century when dogs would guard homes and small communities, were fed scraps, slept outside and had short lives. so it meant life wasn’t good.  That dogs are well fed, groomed, pampered, sleep inside and live longer, so it now means a good life

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The latest copy of The Word for You Today contains something written by an anonymous poet.

If you can start the day without caffeine; if you can get going without pep pills; if you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains; if you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles; if you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it; if you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time; if you can forgive a friend’s lack of consideration; if you can overlook it when those you love take it out on you, when through no fault of your own something goes wrong; if you can take criticism and blame without resentment; if you can ignore a friend’s limited education and never correct him; if you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend; if you can face the world without lies and deceit; if you can conquer tension without medical help; if you can relax without liquor; if you can sleep without the aid of drugs; if you honestly say that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against any creed or color, religion or politics; then, my friend, you’re almost as good as your dog.  Almost, but not quite.

Recently, Pope Francis was misquoted as telling a little boy that all animals go to heaven, but popes throughout the ages and great Protestant leaders such as Martin Luther, John Wesley, John Calvin, and C.S. Lewis, all weighed in on both sides of whether animals go to heaven.

As Jesuit priest and author Jim Martin wrote in an email, To speak about heaven is to speculate.  The only person who can speak about heaven with direct experience would be Jesus and he didn’t say anything about animals.  So this falls under the general theological category of ‘Who knows?’

Aren’t you glad that the same question is already resolved for us today?

As Jesuit priest and author Jim Martin once said in an email, To speak about heaven is to speculate. The only person who can speak about heaven with direct experience would be Jesus, and he didn’t say anything about animals.  So this falls under the general theological category of ‘Who knows?’  In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.  If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:2-3).  Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter (Matthew 7:21).

So be thankful that you can know that you can make it to Heaven.  You just have to live life with the same joy of living and the same trust in your Master that a dog has.